Friends of Downhills Park

Art in the Park 2011

2011-06-06T10:28:00.000-07:00

Enjoy an afternoon of creative art activities
in the lovely surroundings of Downhills Park

Free materials and workshops for all ages and abiliities

Painting, drawing, printmaking, 3D and crafts

Sunday July 10th 1pm-6pm

Near the new Cafe
at the junction of Downhills Park Road and Keston Road

Bat Walk

2011-06-06T10:18:00.000-07:00

Bat Walk from Downhills Park to Lordship Rec Lake
on Saturday evening, 9th July.

Watch, listen and learn all about bats. Using an ultrasonic bat detector, we'll identify the bats we hear.

9.15pm start. Meet at the Philip Lane entrance to Downhills Park, N15.

Bat walks last for a max 1hr 15mins.

Great fun for all ages!

Friend’s Monthly Meeting

2011-06-06T10:13:00.000-07:00

Sunday 12th June

5 pm – after the bedding planting.

Meet at the Downhills community cafe

All Park users are welcome to come and discuss Park issues

BE PART OF THE FUTURE OF DOWNHILLS PARK!

ART IN THE PARK 2011

2011-04-10T16:44:00.000-07:00

Art in the Park, the annual community art festival, will be held in Downhills Park near the new cafe on July 10th from 1-6pm. As usual we will be providing free materials for drawing, painting, printmaking, textiles and 3D crafts for all ages and abilities.

If you are a local artist/craftsperson and wish to offer to do a workshop let us know or if you are a budding artist just come along and join in the creative fun! See you there!

Downhills AGM April 17th 5pm

2011-04-10T16:43:00.000-07:00

The Friends of Downhills AGM will be held at the new Downhills Community Cafe in the park at 5pm on Sunday April 17th.

Subjects under discussion will be future plans for the park, ideas for activities in and around the new cafe, and what the council budget cuts could mean for our park.

Gary's RSPB Bird watch

2011-01-23T13:16:00.000-08:00

Next meeting - Sunday 30th January, 11am

2011-01-23T13:12:00.000-08:00

For your 2011 Diary New Weekend Meeting Date and Time

2011-01-04T06:55:00.000-08:00

Next Friends meeting - Sunday Morning 30th January 2011
at 11.00am

at The Downhills Community Cafe (by the Tennis courts)

All park users and local residents welcome

Winter wonderland - Downhills Park Xmas 2010

2010-12-20T05:39:00.000-08:00

Wild London Photography - 11th December

2010-12-06T02:19:00.001-08:00

Wild London Photography
10am-12pm
Saturday 11th December

Downhills Conservation

2010-12-06T02:01:00.000-08:00

Many thanks to all those volunteers who helped us plant five oak trees, manage the vegetation around the pond and plant daffodil bulbs at Downhills Park on 20th November.

Downhills Pond Management Group

2010-10-31T15:55:00.001-07:00

Conservation in Downhillls - 20 November

2010-10-22T00:32:00.000-07:00

Parks Meeting

2010-10-04T15:53:00.000-07:00

Come to our next meeting to discuss park issues including the opening date of the new café in Downhills Park

Wednesday 13th October - 6.30pm

Downhills Park Community Park Café

(The Old Bowling Green near the Tennis Courts)

Next Committee Meeting

2010-08-21T05:35:00.000-07:00

Tuesday 14th September
6.30pm

The New 'Downhills Park Cafe' on the Old Bowling Green

"His ability to put a smile on your face just by being himself"

2010-08-18T07:36:00.000-07:00

"David will be greatly missed by everyone. It was great to have a chairman who had so much passion and determination for Downhills Park. Thank you to all of those that attended his funeral and sent flowers and condolences to the Macdonald family. Friends of Downhills and the Macdonald family will be commemorating David's tremendous contribution to Downhills Park and the Friends Group by a memorial bench within the park. A memorial fund has been set up".
Veronica Bailey, Joint Secretary Friends of Downhills Park

A brief summary of David's achievements as chair of Friends of Downhills Park
by Chris Currie Joint Secretary Friends of Downhills Park

David was a member of the Friends of Downhills Park from 2001, and very active on the subcommittee set up (in early 2002 I think) to organize the 2003 centenary celebrations in the park, which were a great success; he manned the Friends' stall through much of the day. I think he may already have succeeded Rob Rosenthal as chairman and secretary of The Friends by then; if not, he certainly did soon after.

He was a very conscientious chairman, very efficient at minutes and managing the paperwork, full of humour, and very hospitable - in the early years committee meetings often had to be held in members' houses, especially at David's at 306 Philip Lane, facing the giant murals of Dan Dare characters and spaceships that he'd painted.

But he was also tireless at maintaining contact with a succession of officials in Haringey Council's Parks department, not taking silence or no for an answer, and at liaising with the BTCV staff who have done so much for Harigney's green spaces and wildlife over the years.

He also helped to organise, and always took the lead in, practical work in the park, happily getting his hands dirty - tree planting, bulb planting, shrub planting, helping with sculptural installations, and more. Sometimes he did these tasks alone, or with at most one helper. He would always turn out to help setting up and manning stalls at the annual Art in the Park in summer.

Despite many setbacks (such as the sad loss of the Bowling Club), he never gave up, and in his time the Friends have had many successes in getting improvements to the park and its facilities: new paths in the park, a wildlife meadow, the pedestrian traffic lights between Downhills Park and Lordship Rec, the Green Flag, the steps at the north end between the park and Midnight Alley, the completion of the decayed lime avenue in the southern part of the park, the Philip lane entrance, revived herbaceous borders full of glorious colour and variety near the Keston Road entrance, the reinstallation of the lost pond as a new wildlife pond, bird and bat boxes in the woods, and finally the new cafe which has been built and is almost ready to open.

The pond was particularly close to David's heart - he was not only a great gardener but very knowledgeable about the park's wildlife - and it was wonderful that he lived to see it completed.

David Macdonald. A Tribute.

David was born in Tottenham on the 21st of February 1942, in the middle of the Second World War. His father George was serving in the Home Guard after suffering shell shock fighting in France in the First World War, and His mother Lavinia was the manageress of the Lyons Tea shop in Stamford Hill.

His only sibling Philip was born 6 years later, with Downs Syndrome and sadly only lived to be 24. They shared a house with another family on Philip Lane and lived there until he was 10.

David attended Downhill’s school from the age of 4 to 16 and spent his entire life living in the same part of Tottenham. When the family eventually needed more space they made the long journey to their new home 7 doors down on the other side of the road. Again they shared the much bigger house with another family and eventually David bought the house himself.

When David left school aged 16 he went to the city employment office and they arranged an interview for him with the Club & Institute Unions Head Office. He started working there as a Junior Clerk. David would spend his entire working life at the C.I.U, moving up through different jobs until he was made the Convalescent Homes Secretary, in charge of running the unions 4 Convalescent Homes around the UK. David was a keen photographer and the C.I.U allowed him opportunities to practice his hobby by taking photographs for the annual calendar (some of which are still in use today) and the Club Journal Magazine.

One of the C.I.U Convalescent Homes was in Langland Bay near the Mumbles in Wales, which is where he met Gillian, who was working as a cook in the home. They married in 1983 in Wales and Gillian moved down to London to live with David and his parents in Tottenham.

Their fist child Barry was born in 1984 and was followed by Huw in 1987 and Scott in 1988. The local area was very important to him and he decided to raise his family in the same house where he lived with his parents and to send all 3 of his children to the same school he had gone to. Gillian found work as a childminder, this also allowed her to raise her own children at home. They all lived three generations together until his parents passed away. His mother in 1986 and his father now known as “Pop” in 1988.

David was always keen on education and took evening classes after leaving school to learn French, photography, English Literature, Botany, Zoology and Human Biology for a number of years. In 1980 he decided to start an Open University Degree and eventually finished with an Honours Degree in Social Sciences. He was always keen on learning and when his kids thought he was playing with them in the garden, he was really educating them about different breeds of butterfly or the process of how all the seeds and bulbs became plants.

David pursued many hobbies through his life and has a house covered in oil paintings and photographs, as well as a mural he painted in his living room of his favourite childhood comic “Dan Dare”. His garden was a big point of pride and he spent hours front and back making sure everything was watered and weeded and as it should be. He took great concern that he had enough bird boxes and nuts in his bird feeder for all of the different breeds that visited his garden. David was a big fan of nature and liked the fact he lived in Tottenham with its inner city conveniences, but then also had Railway Fields, lots of big parks and Tottenham marshes and Lea Valley Park all on his doorstep.

A keen spurs fan he started going to games with his school friends in 1959, and continued to go to White Hart Lane until he became too ill. He worked as a steward with his good friend Alan Robinson for a few years at the club, when the job was more about watching the game than seating people! He shared 2 season tickets with his 3 friends Dave Gray, Roger Maddock and Colin Southgate who he had known since being a small child at Downhill’s Infants. He also always maintained a strong interest in Surrey County Cricket Club, that was started by his father taking him to his first game aged 2 years old at the Oval.

In 2001 David joined the Friends of Downhill’s Park Group and eventually took over as chairman, and spent his spare time helping to raise funds for projects such as tree and bulb planting, new steps and railings, bat boxes, a new wildlife pond, a café that is about to open and new oak trees that are soon to be planted. They also have an annual Art in The Park event for local families. He took great pride in his local park and even while he was ill, he was still answering emails, attending meetings when he could and chasing people trying to secure grants for the café and oak trees he wanted. He had played there as a child, and then played football there as an adult, and took his own children to the park to ride bikes and play football, He saw it as an important resource for the whole community to use.

David was offered early retirement from work when he was 62, which he took and proceeded to book dream holidays to the Pyramids in Egypt, a cruise of the Caribbean from Miami and holidays in Europe for him and Gillian. His early retirement also allowed him to focus on his “real” jobs of watching cricket & football, his garden and being chairman of Downhill’s Friends.

The final chapter in David’s life was the news of Scott, his youngest son that he and his girlfriend Alisha are expecting their first child to be born in January, David’s first grandchild.

Finally the family would like to finish with a note from one of David’s close friends, that he wrote in his condolence card, that was amazingly comforting at such a difficult time…

No words can convey how I feel right now,
How you and the boys must feel,
But in two years time you will all be able to think back,
To think of Dave,
With a smile on your face,
For me that will be his legacy,
His ability to put a smile on your face just by being himself.
I and countless others lives have been made all the richer for having known him.
For Me, I was so lucky to have had such a good friend in life.
God Bless Him.

Downhills retains its Green Flag Award

2010-07-29T04:32:00.000-07:00

Art in the Park 2010

2010-07-24T11:37:00.001-07:00

Pond planting day images

2010-06-01T06:11:00.000-07:00

Art in the Park 2010

2010-06-01T02:33:00.001-07:00

Herbal Walk and Talk in Downhills Park

2010-05-26T08:47:00.000-07:00

Friday 4th June 7pm
Downhills Park herbal walk.

Meet: Philip Lane gate entrance to Park, N15

For more details contact BTCV on
020 8348 6005 or m.bury@btcv.org.uk

BTCV are largest environmental volunteering charity in the country.

Pond planting day

2010-04-30T03:23:00.000-07:00

New newsletter

2010-04-14T03:22:00.000-07:00

Download the current newsletter HERE

Friends of Downhills Park Annual AGM

2010-03-25T06:04:00.001-07:00

Sunday April 18th
2pm at Goan Centre off Keston Road, N17
All welcome to discuss the pond, cafe and future park projects.

Creating a wildlife pond for amphibians and wildlife in Downhill’s Park.

2010-03-24T06:16:00.000-07:00

Total project £30,000, funded by Biffawards Landfill Community Fund scheme awarded £27,000 and Haringey Council Making the Difference Fund awarded £3,000.

Pond will be approximately 10 x 15 metres, clay lined, with fence and wheelchair accessible pathway and dipping platform. The pond will be situated on the same site as the original pond that was demolished in the 1960's.

"Recent research has shown that some three quarters (more than a million) of Britain’s ponds have been lost over the past 100 years. Therefore demonstrating how important ponds are in London. As well as being an excellent educational resource with a dipping platform for local schools, the pond will also demonstrate to other parks that having a pond in a green space is highly beneficial for people and wildlife. A pathway will be constructed to allow wheelchair access from an existing path onto the platform and there will be enough room for a wheelchair and a classroom of children. We plan to line the pond with the virtually vandal proof geotextile clay liner to give the pond a much longer life. Froglife will support the project and give follow up advice and training to the local community. Once the pond is completed we will carry out community planting days with local people and an interpretation board will be designed and installed detailing at the different animals to be discovered at the site. Additionally the terrestrial habitat will be improved through creating a wildflower meadow around the pond with various hibernacula such as hibernation and foraging sites. This project will support the Local Biodiversity Action Plan as well as the London BAP."

"This is an amazing project that will provide a great habitat for children to learn and wildlife to thrive. Ponds in London are vital for wildlife especially amphibians and sadly both are in decline. This new pond will be creating a wildlife haven and encourage local people to create their own ponds in their own back gardens." Rebecca Turpin Amphibian and Reptile Conservation’s London Living Water Project Officer

"As Chair of the Friends I am very pleased to see the wildlife pond take shape. The original Downhills pond was scrapped in 1968 when it was the fashion to fill ponds in and it was always my ambition to see a pond return. Fortunately the Friends were of the same mind but for some time Parks Dept was not. At last the advent of the London Living Water project and funding from BIFFA/Haringey's Making a Difference opened the doors and now the pond is under way.I would like to thank in particular Rebecca Turpin of Froglife for the work she put in to help deliver the project. I hope the wildlife pond will encourage other Friends groups to follow us in building ponds and serve the community, local schools and of course our native amphibians for many years to come." David Macdonald Chairman Friends of Downhills Park

New Bat & Bird Boxes

2010-03-24T06:08:00.000-07:00

Photos of Park View Academy handing over their bird and bat boxes to the Friends of Downhills Park and parks staff.

Downhills Park is flapping with birds and bats thanks to the efforts of pupils from the local secondary school Park View Academy.
The school-children worked with BTCV (British Trust of Conservation Volunteers) to hand-craft bird nest boxes and bat roost boxes during their woodwork classes, the different designs will attract pipistrelle bats and birds such as blue tits and robins who's natural habitats are in decline. The pupils handed over the 30 boxes to Friends of Downhills Park and parks services during a ceremony.

BTCV Wild London Photography Walk/Talk/Workshop - Spring Flowers

2010-03-03T03:08:00.000-08:00

Saturday, 13th March
10.30am - 12.30pm

Join our wildlife woodland expert and develop your photographic skills on a FREE walk/talk/workshop, open to all budding photographers and non-amateurs.

This month we will be visiting colourful DOWNHILLS PARK. Don't forget to bring your camera!
Meet: Philip Lane gate entrance of Downhills Park, N15

www.btcv.org/london

Forthcoming Park Projects for 2010

2010-02-23T10:28:00.003-08:00

NEW Wild Life pond + Educational Dipping platform
Supported by Amphibian and Reptile Conservation (formally Froglife)
Grants from BIFFA, Landfill Tax Trusts and Haringey Council
'Making a Difference' Fund.

Build Starting February 2010

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NEW Downhills Park Cafe & Toilet
Supported by Haringey Parks Department
Funded by Haringey Adults Learning Disabilities
Planning Permission Granted on Old Bowling Green Pavilion site
The Build starting 15th March 2010

Due to be completed for early Summer 2010

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Art in the Park (10 year Anniversary)
An afternoon of participatory, creative activities for all ages and abilities outdoors in Downhills Park. Free art materials are provided for all participants for drawing, painting and various 3d or mixed media activities run mainly by local artists. A special area is set up for children under 5 with trained creche workers.

Sunday 18th July 2010 Funding applied for.

Achievements 1999 - 2010

2010-02-02T09:25:00.000-08:00

Italian Ornamental Gardens - won Haringey Best Planting award 2009

Wild Flower Meadow - funding Breathing Spaces 2009

Children safe picnic area & grass circle with Magnolia tree - funding Haringey Parks Dept 2009

Batboxes and Nesting Boxes funded 2009

Tree Planting 2004-2007 working with BTCV and Haringey Parks Dept. Grants from Making a Difference and Awards 2004 from BTCV Peoples Places Scheme.Twenty-two Lime trees,Eight Hornbeams, Six to eight walnuts, maples, birch and hornbeams,Eleven Flowering Cherries Five Oaks planted, Nearly one thousand birch whips. Bulb Planting daffodils, crocuses, numerous Shrubs.

New Rockery West Green Road Entrance

New Timber Entrance Steps to Woodland Area from Midnight Alley 2007 Funding Making a Difference

Parks Paths Resurfacing including Cycle paths running from Lordship Recreation Ground

New Park Entrance and improved Pedestrian Crossings on Downhills Park Road South & North

Centenary Park Celebration 2003 + Video Parks History & People's Memories working with West Green Residence Association

Children's playground - funding Sure Start

Art in The Park - creative afternoon annually since 2000 - funding applied for each year

Tennis & Basketball Courts Resurfaced ( free play)

New Dog / Litter Bins 2009

New Park Benches 2009/10

EVENTS

2010-01-03T06:23:00.000-08:00

Full information HERE

Meetings

2010-01-02T10:00:00.000-08:00

Next Committee Meeting
Monday 13th December
6.30pm
Come to our next meeting to discuss park issues

Downhills Park Community Park Café
(The Old Bowling Green near the Tennis Courts)

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Next Committee Meeting
Tuesday 16th November
6.30pm
Downhills Park Cafe

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Next Committee Meeting
Wednesday 14th July
6.30pm
Neighbourhood Office West Green Learning Centre

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Friends of Downhills Park Annual AGM
Sunday April 18th
2pm at Goan Centre off Keston Road, N17
All welcome to discuss the pond, cafe and future park projects.

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Next meeting for all Friends Groups
Saturday 6th March
10am
Bruce Castle Museum, N17

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Next Committee Meeting
Tuesday 9th March
6.30pm
Neighbourhood Office West Green Learning Centre

Contact

2010-01-02T09:34:00.000-08:00

friendsofdownhills@googlemail.com

MEMBERSHIP is open to any interested member of the public. Come along to any of our public meetings or email the secretary.

About

2010-01-02T01:55:00.000-08:00

Location
Downhills Park Road, London, N17
Entrances in Philip Lane and Downhills Park Road, London N17

View Larger Map

Nearest Underground: Turnpike Lane (Picaddilly line) and Seven Sisters (Victoria line).
41 bus to Philip Lane entrance from both stations.

The Friends of Downhills Park were established in 1999, developing out of the Parks Sub-Group of the West Green Residents' Association.

Recognizing the importance of Downhills Park, Lordship and Belmont recreation grounds to the quality of life in West Green ward, the Friends aimed to promote the public benefit and enjoyment of these open spaces by involving local people in planning and decision-making affecting these areas and encouraging more local people to use the parks and take an active interest in their future. The Friends work to benefit the inhabitants of the London Borough of Haringey in particular, but not exclusively, in West Green. They have campaigned to reverse the decline in the park in the 1990s, to press for improvements in its facilities while protecting its historic character, and to enhance public interest and awareness of the park.

Newsletter & Park history
Please visit our website www.downhills.org.uk