We've found 50 parks

Bancroft's School was founded in 1737 as a result of a bequest of 1728 by Francis Bancroft for the establishment of an almshouse and charitable school for 100 boys, to be run by the Drapers' Company. The original School and Almshouses were in Mile End Road in East London, but in 1884 a new site was sought in rural surroundings for the sake of the pupils' health. Bancroft's School moved to Woodford Green in 1889 and its collegiate style buildings and chapel remain, although the school has been extended over the years. The buildings are ranged around a landscaped quadrangle laid to grass, divided in two by a flagstone path with a central war memorial of 1920. The quadrangle is partly cloistered and has perimeter paths with a series of benches along the sides. The west side of the quadrangle has a screen consisting of a series of arches with ornamental railings and central gateway leading onto the terrace that overlooks the main school playing fields and cricket field.

Barkingside Cemetery is a municipal cemetery, which opened in 1922/23. In 1954 when the cemetery had become full an extension was opened to the west, Barkingside Garden of Rest. It is laid out on a simple grid with wide paths and some covered seats. A small hedged plot on the north east side is reserved for deceased members of Dr Barnardo's Village Home, which had been established in 1875, at which time Barkingside was a small village. Barkingside Station opened in 1903 and the area gradually became built up.

Barkingside Garden of Rest was set up as an extension to the municipal Barkingside Cemetery to the east. Opened in 1954, the first burial took place on 8 October of that year. It is a functional C20th cemetery laid out with straight roadways and paths, some flanked by ornamental trees. A prominent weeping willow stands near the main carriage sweep at the Longwood Gardens entrance where there is a covered waiting area. Until the early C20th Barkingside was a small village, development taking place after Barkingside Station opened in 1903.

Barkingside was part of the municipal borough of Ilford, which once lay within the large estate lands belonging to Barking Abbey. In the 1880s the hamlet consisted of a few houses and cottages, the church, public houses and the charitable institution of Dr Barnardo, but even into the 1920s the area was quite rural. Barkingside Recreation Ground dates from the early C20th. Near the entrance on Cranbrook Road is a drinking fountain presented in 1906 by Cllr W P Griggs, JP and Chairman of Ilford UDC's Parks Committee.

Barley Lane Recreation Ground dates from the 1950s, and is home to Barley Bowls Club, which was established in 1957. The 1:2500 Ordnance Survey map of 1961 records the park laid out with a bowling green and pavilion, tennis courts, paths and planting, and provided with facilities such as public toilets. To the north of the recreation ground is Barley Lane Primary School, built in 1952 as part of the education facilities provided by the County Council.

Dr Barnardo's Village Home for Girls was founded here in 1875, built on part of the estate of Mossford Lodge where Dr Barnardo and his wife Syrie set up home in 1875. Barnardo had the entirely new idea of providing individual 'cottages' for destitute girls of different ages, each supervised by a house mother. The planned community was built around a series of village greens and at one time was home to over 1,000 girls on a site of 60 acres, with schools, a children's church and other facilities; boys were admitted in the 1930s. Some of the first cottages were named after flowers and plants, and the children undertook gardening duties. Dr Barnardo was buried here in 1905, his large memorial located in the grounds. In 1991 the village officially closed as a children's home, and the site is much reduced today although part of the original greens survive. Among fine trees are Scots pines and oak, garden areas include roses and ornamental shrub, and there are 3 Victorian fountains.

Ilford Burial Board, established in 1880, laid out Buckingham Road Cemetery as an extension of the burial ground of St Mary the Virgin Great Ilford and initially the cemetery was known as Great Ilford Cemetery. It had its own chapel, due to be demolished by early 2011, and the first burial took place on 4 September 1881. A memorial near the entrance commemorates Sir Peter Griggs, the 1st MP for Ilford, who died in 1920, his monument surmounted by an angel. The cemetery has notable limes, particularly on its south side with C19th railings on the west boundary.

Christ Church Wanstead is a fine large church built by Sir George Gilbert Scott in 1861, later enlarged and the ragstone tower and spire were added. It was built as a chapel-of-ease to Wanstead parish church of St Mary the Virgin. Surrounding the church is a wide hard-gravelled path, and the surrounding garden, which has no gravestones, is largely grass with some perimeter shrubs and trees. It is enclosed by wooden picket fencing, which separates it from Christchurch Green Recreation Ground.

Christchurch Green Recreation Ground was formerly known as Spratthall Green. It surrounds Christ Church Wanstead, a small open parkland containing notable horse chestnuts, oak, ash, sycamore and sweet chestnut that possibly dated from the C17th/18th. It was laid out c.1900, a flat grassed area with a network of diagonal intersecting tarmaced paths, predominantly flanked by horse chestnut, with some planting of evergreens.

Claybury Park was once part of the Claybury estate, held by Barking Abbey from the C12th; it contains Claybury and Hospital Hill Woods, remnants of ancient woodland of Hainault Forest. Claybury was developed into a fine gentleman's estate from 1786 by James Hatch, who built a new mansion, expanded the estate and commissioned Humphry Repton to advise on landscaping the parkland. By 1847 the estate was c.440 acres and included Claybury Woods as well as a number of properties. In 1887 it was sold and Claybury Asylum was built by 1893, the first mental hospital built by the new LCC. In 1997 the Health Authority sold the Hospital estate for an exclusive private housing development, renamed Repton Park, but 18 hectares of ancient woodland and 38 hectares of parkland became part of a new public park, Claybury Park. This also incorporated Redbridge Open Space to the south, itself part of the Claybury estate until the 1880s.

Clayhall Park is on former land of the Manor of Clay Hall, which was broken up in 1927. First mentioned in 1203, it probably remained in ownership of the de la Claie or Clay family until 1313 and then passed through various owners. The manor house, which must have once been a substantial building, was demolished in the mid C18th and replaced by a farmhouse. The park opened to the public in 1934 and the farmhouse, outbuildings and chapel were demolished in 1935. The large, flat park is interspersed with sycamore, ash, oak, lime and horse chestnut avenue.

Elmhurst, an C18th house with an area of garden to the front, is a fragment of a gentleman's estate. It was originally known as Grove House, having been built to the designs of Joel Johnson of Walthamstow in 1771 by Sylvanus Grove who came to Woodford in 1770. It was later owned by a Quaker tea merchant, Smith Harrison, whose wife Jane was a sister of Lord Lister. Part of the estate was separated from the house when the railway came through the area and was later laid out as a public park, Elmhurst Gardens. The large front garden had two stone urns and was largely lawn with some shrubs and notable trees, including cedar and horse chestnuts; a C20th red brick wall divided the property from High Road. A photograph of c.1900 shows the house front with the cedar tree relatively unchanged. By 1939 it was in use as a hostel, and tennis courts had been built behind the house, and it later became a conference centre connected to Queen Mary College. Elmhurst was sold for residential development with the house converted as part restaurant and part offices.