Whitewebbs Park and Golf Course

Whitewebbs Park, which contains areas of woodland, is situated on former parkland laid out after the 1803 enclosure of the Enfield parish common land, which had been created after Enfield Chase was dischased in 1779. Early records list Agnes and Stephen Wilford as acquiring a tenement at Whitewebbs in 1543, and in 1570 a mansion by that name was owned by Dr Robert Huicke, physician to Henry VIII; the house was reputed to have been one of the meeting places of the Gunpowder Plot conspirators. The old house was demolished in 1790 when the present house was built in 1791 by Dr Abraham Wilkinson, a notable agricultural improver.

At one time the New River, constructed in the early C17th by Sir Hugh Myddelton after whom nearby Myddelton House (q.v.) is named, ran through Whitewebbs estate and was carried over Cuffley Brook in a cast iron aqueduct built in 1820. However, the loop through Whitewebbs was abandoned in 1859 when work was carried out to straighten the New River, and was replaced by a new section from Turkey Street to Tenniswood Road, and a new aqueduct over Maidens Brook. When the Whitewebbs loop of the New River became redundant it was turned into an ornamental lake. The park today contains the Pumping Station that was built in 1898 to feed a loop of the New River, and which is now a Transport Museum.

In the late C19th the then owner Charles Stuart Robinson carried out various alterations, adding wings and a large curved pediment to the west front, central bays and balustraded balconies to the east front so that it resembled 'a French chateau'.

In 1931 the estate of c.100 hectares was purchased from Sir Duncan Orr-Lewis by Enfield Urban District Council and Middlesex County Council and made into a public golf course, which retained much of the parkland character. There are notable oak and hornbeam in the woodland, stands of Wellingtonia and other fragments of the designed landscape include mature horse chestnuts. Shortly after the UDC took over Whitewebbs it commissioned a report on the state of the woodlands from W J Bean formerly the curator of Kew Gardens, whose 1937 Report included his statement that he considered 'the greater part of Whitewebbs Park to be very beautiful woodland'. Two lakes formerly part of the estate are now outside the park's boundary to the west, one of which is within a Water Garden Centre. To the north of the house is a pond with C16th conduit house and well and C19th specimen planting of Douglas fir, Norway spruce, cypresses etc. Two of the Estate lodges remain: North Lodge, a Victorian gothic building on Whitewebbs Road, and South Lodge, 'a delicious pink confection' (Pevsner), a quaintly barge-boarded mid C19th cottage orné at Beggars Hollow.

The area retains some of its rural atmosphere and in fact was slow to be developed, in part due to poor communications and public transport; although Turkey Street station had opened in 1891, it was then closed in 1909 not to re-open until 1960. Whitewebbs House is now a pub and family restaurant with an area of garden in front of the building which has lawns and some ornamental beds, beyond which is the golf course. The golf course has a public footpath running through it from which the undulating landscape can be seen. To the west are woods, with various nature trails and paths running through, which contains ancient woodland with such plants as wild service-tree, butchers broom, yellow archangel and enchanter's nightshade. Oak, hornbeam, beech and horse chestnut are found in some areas and bird-life here is prolific, with newts, frogs and toads in the ponds and river.

In 2020, Enfield Council closed the golf course at the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic and in 2021 made the decision to close the club permanently, on the grounds that it ran at a loss. In December 2022, the Council's proposal to release part of the former golf course to Tottenham Hotspur Football Club on a 25 year lease was announced, which has led to sifgnificant local opposition. The football club's plan is to create a women's and girls' training academy, which would cover c.18% of the overall parkland. Friends of Whitewebbs along with CPRE and Enfield RoadWatch have sought legal advice on the lawfulness of Enfield’s action in trying to dispose of a large proportion of Whitewebbs Park by lease. The final decision is due to be made in summer 2023.