Blondin Park and Blondin Nature Area

The land was originally part of Boston Farm. In 1928 Ealing Town Council decided to acquire 17.25 acres of land for public open space. Middlesex County Council at first offered to contribute up to £3,072 but reduced this amount when ETC proposed to use 4.5 acres for school playing fields and 3.5 acres for allotments. MCC's contribution of £1,586.55 was for a quarter of the cost of the 9.25 acre Recreation Ground and was conditional on this portion being permanently dedicated to such use. It opened as Northfields Recreation Ground but by 1957 had been renamed Blondin Park after the French acrobat and tightrope walker, Charles Blondin (1824-97).

Blondin, real name Jean Francois Gravelet, had retired to this area and lived in Niagara House at the southern end of what was then called Northfield Lane, where he died. This was formerly an old farmhouse, which was part of the manor of Coldhawe or Cold Hall, the Manor House of which had been demolished in 1858 although its garden still existed until the early C20th. Blondin was famous for crossing the Niagara Falls in 1859 on a 110 foot long tightrope; on subsequent crossings he added circus stunts such as being blindfold, walking on stilts, carrying a man on his back, and pushing a wheelbarrow. During an event in Dublin in 1860, his tightrope broke and two workers killed, although Blondin  himself was uninjured. He was buried in Kensal Green Cemetery (q.v.) where for over 30 years, the Blondin Memorial Trust has held an annual Toast by Blondin's grave on the anniversary of his death on 22 February 1897.

In 1957 Blondin Park was the venue for Ealing & Hanwell Boy Scouts' Pageant and Golden Jubilee of Scouting and centenary year of the founder Baden Powell. Blondin Nature Area was opened in 1997 and planted with a community orchard, wildflower meadow and pond. Friends of Blondin was set up in 1998 to assist management of the site.