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Bethnal Green Gardens were once part of Bethnal Green Poor's Lands, an area of former manorial waste that under a trust deed of 1690 was administered to benefit the local poor. This part of the Green was purchased by the LCC in 1891 and laid out as public gardens that opened in 1895. Bethnal House on the east side of the gardens is on the site of a C16th mansion, Kirby's Castle, which was later used as a Lunatic Asylum from the late C18th, part of which was converted as Bethnal Green Public Library in 1914. The gardens have an area of formal planting in the north with open grass and sports facilities predominantly in the south. A memorial to victims of the worst civilian disaster of WWII when 173 people died in Bethnal Green underground station, which was then being used as an air raid shelter, was installed in the north-west corner, completed in 2017.
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The land here was once part of Penge Common, dating back to at least the C10th. Betts Park was opened in 1928 when a large Victorian villa and its gardens, including a remnant of the former Croydon Canal, were donated to the people of Penge in perpetuity by local landlord and businessman Frederick Betts for use as a library and park. Additional land was later purchased with funding from the King George's Fields Foundation in 1936 and provided horticultural features and recreation facilities. The park slopes to the south and is almost entirely surrounded by residential housing. Trees include mature oaks, false acacia, holm oak, London plane and a mulberry, and there are remains of a shrubbery with holm oak, laurel and yew. Horse chestnut trees line a tarmac walk from Betts Way south-west across the park. The brick base of an armillary sundial survives to the north and from this point there are views across the surprisingly wooded landscape of Croydon.
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Beulah Hill Pond had long existed as a watering place for cattle and horses, such as those pulling trams up Knights Hill. A railing across the middle prevented animals straying into the deeper water. Locally known as the Big Pond or Crown Pond, the name Beulah dates from the C19th and may derive from Bewlys Farm and Bewly Wood. The pond came under the auspices of Croydon Parks Department in 1954 and in the early 1960s it was a favourite place for skating in the winter.
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Beverley Meads is in the south-west corner of Wimbledon Common and was once part of Warren Farm. The land borders the Royal Wimbledon Golf Course and was acquired by Wimbledon Borough Council in the 1950s. It was laid out for a pitch and putt course in the 1970s, but was established as a Local Nature Reserve in 1993. Paths run through the woodland and to the north is Fishpond Wood, formerly managed by the London Wildlife Trust until 2018.
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Beverley Park was laid out in c.1890 on part of the land that used to be Hoppinghood Farm, demolished in 1911, part of whose land is also now Malden Golf Course. The park has a pavilion and tennis courts, open grass, some mature trees and an extensive rose garden in the south west corner. The Beverley Brook flows along its eastern boundary and on the other side of the stream are school playing fields and sports grounds. An avenue of trees runs east-west across the centre of the park and there are various specimen trees including catalpa, gingko, oak, copper beech as well as conifers and a number of raised beds at the entrances.
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Bexleyheath Cemetery was founded by the Burial Board in 1876 and opened in 1879. Bexleyheath had grown up in the C19th as a new town along the main London to Dover road, which ran across the heath at Bexley. The cemetery has little in the way of mature trees or landscaping, although there is a small flower bed in front of the chapel. Paths are in a grid layout, with a serpentine element towards the centre. In 2001 a memorial garden was opened for cremated remains.
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Golf has been played here since 1909, when Bexleyheath Golf Club was established. Made on former farmland, possibly part of the Blendon House estate, the 9-hole golf course has the appearance of vestigial parkland planting, with small tree clumps and some standards on the slopes. A building called The Thatched Cottage was recorded in the late 1950s.
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Biddestone Park, also known as Biddestone Road Open Space, is a small park next to the busy Holloway Road. It was formerly the site of Loraine Place, a long terrace of housing built in 1832 when the area was gradually being developed. By 1936 Loraine Place was demolished and replaced by the LCC Loraine Estate of 6 five-storeyed blocks, later rebuilt in 1984. By 1952 the OS map marks a playground between Holloway Road and Biddestone Road south of the LCC estate that would later form the future site of the park, adjacent to which was the Caledonian Presbyterian Church, established here from c.1846. Biddestone Road Open Space was renovated in 2016 with new landscaping and play facilities marking the launch of Love Islington Parks initiative.
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Big Wood has existed as woodland for over 1000 years, probably part of land given to the Bishop of London in c704AD. When Hampstead Garden Suburb was being planned in 1907, its instigator, Dame Henrietta Barnett, was committed to providing green spaces within the housing, planting trees and preserving those that existed. When additional land was acquired to extend the Suburb in 1911, Big Wood was leased from the Ecclesiastical Commissioners and preserved as woodland. In 1933 Finchley UDC took on the freehold. Now designated a Nature Reserve, there are a great variety of trees here including Wild Service Trees, associated with ancient woodland.
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Biggin Hill Cemetery opened in 1930, and has no chapel. Among those buried here are WWII air crew.
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Biggin Wood is an area of woodland believed to have once been part of the Great North Wood. It appears to have been within a 120acre estate known as Biggin's Farm. A parish map of 1864 shows 'Biggens Wood' and 'Biggen's Farm' at the end of Biggin's Farm Road. By 1928 the farmhhouse was a ruin and the area around it had lain derelict for some years. The site was acquired by Croydon Corporation in 1939, with tennis courts and changing rooms provided in 1949.
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This private garden at the rear of the terrace of 16-30 Bina Gardens was laid out in the 1880s as part of the Gunter Estate. In 1983 the leases ran out and the garden became wild and overgrown until it was rediscovered when it was purchased by Falkner House School for girls. The school cleared the site, revealing the original layout and it was then set out with planted areas dedicated to different continents. Nicknamed 'The Secret Garden' it is now privately owned and has been restored to its original design, and has a number of sculptures.