Library Green

The village of Enfield, known as Enfield Green and later Enfield Town, was one of the largest mediaeval parishes in Middlesex and a fully cultivated area by the time of the Domesday survey, with to the west the 3,250 hectare hunting park of Enfield Chase. Later the area developed with many fine houses, including Chase Side House, a villa overlooking 5 acres of pleasure grounds owned by William Everett. The Chase Side estate was once land within the Old Park Estate, the Home Park of Enfield Manor, which pre-dated Enfield Chase and provided deer for the hunting park. An older house was purchased in 1826 by James Farrer Steadman, whose widow married William Everett. Everett is described by William Keane in 'The Beauties of Middlesex' (1850) as 'a gentleman of considerable taste in all that belongs to the departments of horticulture, floriculture, &c.' His kitchen garden contained an extensive vinery and cucumber pit, and his pleasure grounds led to St Andrew's Church (q.v.) along a 'winding walk . . . bounded, on each side, by festoons of roses hanging from pillar to pillar for some considerable distance, until it enters the shrubbery to the gardener's cottage and to the orange-house'.

Everett's gardens no longer exist but part of the Chase Side House estate was purchased in 1894 as the site for a new town hall. In 1910 Enfield's Central Library, a 2-storey red brick building with stone quoins in English Baroque style, was built facing outwards with the aim still being to build on the green behind. However, the town hall scheme was then abandoned and Library Green was landscaped and the Library opened in 1912. As a result Library Green formed an important part of the turn-of-the-century landscaping of the east part of Enfield Town, having group value with Town Park, Chase Green and Chase Green Gardens (q.q.v.). Library Green was until the late C20th a rough, unenclosed lawn crossed by paths, with trees and shrubs around the perimeter, including acacia, cedar, laurel with a lime tree and a London plane on the adjoining pavement.

The garden was re-landscaped in 2009/2010, with new planting, seating, a water feature and planting of habitats for wildlife, including log piles, bat boxes and bird boxes as part of the project to restore and transform the old Enfield Town Library. The project was undertaken by Enfield Council working with Shepheard Epstein Hunter Architects. The new building re-opened in March 2010 at a ceremony officiated by former Poet Laureate Sir Andrew Motion in his new role as Chair of Museums, Libraries and Archives Council. Under the refurbishment, the entrance of the building was moved from the rear to face the street, the Edwardian façade was cleaned and its original windows refurbished, with a red brick 1960s extension pulled down and a glass and steel frontage erected to look out over the Green. In January 2011 it was awarded the 'Best Built Project' at the London Planning Awards.