Description
Warrender Park was created on a fragment of the landscape park of High Grove. The Highgrove Estate was inherited by the Warrender family in 1894. In 1935 Miss Eleanor Warrender sold the 4.35-hectare site to Ruislip-Northwood UDP for a recreation area, which was initially named Eastcote Recreation Ground. By the late 1970s it was called Warrender Park after the family. High Grove Nature Reserve has woodland with parkland trees and a pond, possibly a relic from the former garden.
Practical Information
| Site location | Myrtle Avenue/Lime Grove, Eastcote |
|---|---|
| Postcode | HA4 8RL |
| What3Words | ///economies.useful.target |
| Type of Site | Public Park |
| Borough | Hillingdon |
| Open to Public | Yes |
| Opening Times | unrestricted |
| Facilities | Children's play area, multi-games ball-wall, tennis courts |
| Public Transport | Tube: Eastcote, Ruislip Manor (Piccadilly, Metropolitan). Bus: H13 |
| Research Updated | 1 October 2016 |
| Last Updated | 18 October 2026 |
Full description
High Grove is shown on Greenwood's Map of Middlesex of 1819. Highgrove House was built in 1881, designed by Edward Prior, replacing an earlier late C18th house. From 1834 the estate was owned by Lt Gen Sir Joseph Fuller, whose daughter Juliana inherited the estate in the 1860s. She was the second wife of Sir Hugh Hume-Campbell whose daughter by his first wife had 6 children, the Warrenders, who later inherited the estate in 1894. The Warrender family were well-connected and among their relatives was Lady Randolph Churchill, who spent part of her honeymoon with Sir Winston Churchill at Highgrove House. Alice Warrender founded the Hawthornden Prize for Literature at Oxford. Eleanor Warrender won the Croix de Guerre in 1915 for work with the French Red Cross, and after WWI she lived at High Grove with her brother Col Hugh Warrender. She was active in the local community, founded Eastcote and Pinner Girl Guides and funded the church.
When Ruislip-Northwood UDC purchased the site from Miss Warrender for the recreation ground in 1935, the Eastcote Association acquired a pair of ornamental wrought iron gates, originally made in the 1870s for London art dealers Thomas Agnew & Sons, which were re-erected at the Lime Grove entrance to the new park. Initially named Eastcote Recreation Ground, it was laid out with children's playground, sand pit and tennis courts. It became known as Warrender Park by the late 1970s. The park has new planting of Lombardy poplar, flowering cherry among other trees, but also a group of four mature horse chestnuts and many large oaks, several of which are aligned north-south across the park and into oak and hornbeam woodland to the north. High Grove and its grounds were purchased in 1949 and the house is used by LB Hillingdon Social Services Department, a swimming pool built in the grounds. A school and recent office development is now in the north-west corner of the site. Also built on the former grounds is Highgrove Housing, a modernist social housing scheme designed by Edward Cullinan and built in 1972-77.
When Ruislip-Northwood UDC purchased the site from Miss Warrender for the recreation ground in 1935, the Eastcote Association acquired a pair of ornamental wrought iron gates, originally made in the 1870s for London art dealers Thomas Agnew & Sons, which were re-erected at the Lime Grove entrance to the new park. Initially named Eastcote Recreation Ground, it was laid out with children's playground, sand pit and tennis courts. It became known as Warrender Park by the late 1970s. The park has new planting of Lombardy poplar, flowering cherry among other trees, but also a group of four mature horse chestnuts and many large oaks, several of which are aligned north-south across the park and into oak and hornbeam woodland to the north. High Grove and its grounds were purchased in 1949 and the house is used by LB Hillingdon Social Services Department, a swimming pool built in the grounds. A school and recent office development is now in the north-west corner of the site. Also built on the former grounds is Highgrove Housing, a modernist social housing scheme designed by Edward Cullinan and built in 1972-77.
Further Information
| Grid Reference | TQ105877 |
|---|---|
| Size in hectares | 4.35 |
| Site Ownership | LB Hillingdon |
| Site Management | Green Spaces Team; Friends of Warrender Park and Highgrove Woods |
| Dates | C18th; 1935 |
| Listed Structures | LBII: Highgrove House. Local list: Warrender Park Gates |
| 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 | Hillingdon |
| In Conservation Area | No |
| Tree Preservation Order | No |
| Nature Conservation Area | Yes - (part Highgrove Nature Reserve) |
| Green Belt | No |
| Metropolitan Open Land | No |
| Special Policy Area | No |
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Nearby parks and gardens
Eastcote War Memorial Garden was laid out in 1929 on the former site of Field End Farm pond, when the village war memorial was moved from its location at the busy junction of Field End Road and Bridle Road. The memorial takes the form of a stone cross and has bronze plaques with the names of those who died in WWI and WWII. The public garden, which has the original yew hedge to the road, has trees including two mature Common Ash trees, shrubs, lawn and ornamental bedding, is the location for Eastcote's well-attended Remembrance Day service, which in 2017 saw a gathering of over 1,100 people with 200 children presenting crosses.
Pretty Corner is a small triangular area of public garden at the junction of Fore Street and Eastcote High Road. It was once the site of Guts or Gutt's Pond, and was laid out in the 1930s as a public garden. It has trimmed hedges on the two roadside boundaries and a central flagstone path; the rear of the site has shrubbery and trees. It is overlooked by the picturesque New Cottages, built for estate workers in 1879 and designed by Ernest George and Harold Peto. Peto's father, Sir Samuel Morton Peto, was a teant of Eastcote Hall.
This is the gardens and small part of the former grounds of Eastcote House, the home of the Hawtrey family from 1532. Built on the site of an older house, Eastcote House stood close to the junction of Eastcote High Road and Field End. In the 1930s much of the estate was sold for development but the grounds were purchased by Ruislip-Norwood UDC in 1938 as public open space. The house was initially used for communal activities but demolished as unsafe in 1964. Within the grounds are the old Coach house, C17th walled garden, C18th dovecote and a ha-ha. There are many fine mature trees and more recent garden features include a herb garden planted for Queen Elizabeth's Silver Jubilee in 1977, orchard, rockery and wildflower meadow.