Description
The 9 acre site was purchased by Edmonton Borough Council with the help of a grant of £2,000 from King George's Fields Foundation, from which the playing field gets its name. The Foundation was set up in 1936 following the King's death in order to provide a living memorial to him through funding playing fields for young people.
Practical Information
| Previously known as | Delhi Gardens |
|---|---|
| Site location | Delhi Road, Enfield |
| Postcode | EN1 2NB |
| What3Words | ///codes.joke.admit |
| Type of Site | Public Park |
| Borough | Enfield |
| Open to Public | Yes |
| Public Transport | Rail: Bush Hill Park |
| Research Updated | 1 February 2011 |
| Last Updated | 18 October 2026 |
Full description
In 1925 the National Playing Fields Association was set up at the instigation of King George V who was dismayed by the poor sport and play facilities then available to children, and in 1933 the organisation was granted a Royal Charter. Now renamed Fields in Trust (FIT), it continues to work to protect and campaign for playing fields for the community, its President for the past 60 years HRH the Duke of Edinburgh. The King George's Fields Foundation was established on 3 November 1936 in order to promote the establishment of playing fields in memory of the late King George. It was considered that the King would have approved of such a living memorial, which would benefit the 'individual well-being and the general welfare of the nation', and young people in particular, by providing them with the environment and opportunity for open air exercise. The Trust Deed of the Foundation defined a playing field as 'any open space used for the purpose of outdoor games, sports and pastimes.' Local authorities were able to apply to the Foundation, whose trustee was the National Playing Fields Association, for a grant to provide these new facilities for public recreation. Each new playing field was to be known as King George's Field and was generally provided with heraldic panels that would distinguish it as such. It was a condition of the grant that the tenure of the site was sufficiently secure so that it would provide a meaningful legacy to the king's memory; the land must have been acquired only for the purpose of public recreation. The design of the entrance and the ground's layout had to be approved by the Foundation, which was to receive an annual report for the first five years from the acceptance of the offer. 471 playing fields across the UK were funded and following the demise of the scheme in 1965, their protection has been undertaken by the Fields in Trust. The largest King George's Field is Enfield Playing Fields (q.v.), some 128 acres, and the smallest is in the City of London, King George's Field in Portsoken Street (q.v.).
Further Information
| Grid Reference | TQ337948 |
|---|---|
| Size in hectares | 3.64 |
| Site Ownership | LB Enfield |
| Site Management | Place Shaping and Enterprise, Parks Business Unit |
| Dates | 1950s |
| On National Heritage List for England (NHLE), Parks & Gardens | No |
| Registered common or village green on Commons Registration Act 1965 | No |
| Protected under London Squares Preservation Act 1931 | No |
| Local Authority | Enfield |
| In Conservation Area | No |
| Tree Preservation Order | No |
| Nature Conservation Area | No |
| Green Belt | No |
| Metropolitan Open Land | No |
| Special Policy Area | No |
Please note the Inventory and its content are provided for your general information only and are subject to change. It is your responsibility to check the accuracy.
Nearby parks and gardens
Salisbury House is an early C17th timbered manor house, now used as an Arts Centre. The small garden in which it stands and the adjacent Bury Lodge Gardens are all that remain of its former grounds and the countryside that surrounded it, now largely built over by suburban housing. Until the C19th Salisbury House had a moat. It became a boys' school in the 1890s and from 1907 was owned by the Pratley family until 1935 when it was purchased by Edmonton UDC. Its future was most uncertain until 1957, when it was converted for use as an Arts Centre. At that point considerable works were carried out in both house and garden where removal of a large sycamore tree revealed a well that originally supplied water to the old kitchen cisterns; another well was discovered beneath a large beech tree.
Bury Lodge Gardens is an ornamental public park laid out by Edmonton UDC between 1935-7 on the grounds of Bury Lodge, a house dating from medieval times, which was demolished in 1936. The Recreation Ground, which also took part of the grounds of the adjacent Salisbury House, was opened on 10 April 1937. The original layout, which is largely intact, had a rose garden planted with 4,700 roses with a central lily pond and pergolas, a sheltered retreat for the elderly, an open-air draughts board, and a pool for paddling and sailing model boats. There were also slides, swings and a merry-go-round, and grass plot for games. Along the southern boundary is Salmon's Brook and to the east, behind Salisbury House, is a bowling green.
Edmonton UDC acquired 37 acres of land west of Hertford Road in order to provide recreational facilities for the growing population as the area became increasingly built up. The site was previously used for brickworks, a major local industry until the 1970s, and many of the surrounding houses were probably built from local bricks. Jubilee Park was planned in commemoration of George V's Silver Jubilee in 1935 but in the event the park did not open until 1939, after the King's death. The park has fine a Art Deco style entrance on Galliard Road, and has recreational facilities as well as ornamental planting.