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Description

Woodcock Park and Kenton Grange are divided by the Wealdstone Brook, both sections once part of the grounds of Kenton Grange, which was built as Kenton Lodge in 1803-7 with a small garden behind the house. The land extending to the stream was owned in the 1920s by Mr Jeffress, who built the picturesque cottage estate at Brookside Close. Jeffress sold the property in c.1952 to Middlesex County Council who turned Kenton Grange into an old people's home, and the remaining land into a public park. Woodcock Park has a good collection of trees and shrubs, with numerous mature specimens. The area south of the stream is more open with recreational facilities, largely grass and some scattered trees. A Pollinator Biodiversity Garden was created in Woodcock Park in 2022.

Practical Information

Previously known as Kenton Lodge
Site location Kenton Road/Woodgrange Avenue/Woodcock Hill/Shaftesbury Avenue, Kenton
Postcode HA3 0RD
What3Words ///live.villa.cans
Type of Site Public Park
Borough Brent
Open to Public Yes
Opening Times unrestricted
Facilities Tennis courts, children's playground, Woodcock Park Bowling Club, car park
Public Transport Tube: Kingsbury (Jubilee) then bus. London Overground/Tube (Bakerloo): Kenton then bus. Bus: 183, 223
Research Updated 24 November 2024
Last Updated 18 October 2026

Full description

Woodcock Park is in two parts, divided by the Wealdstone Brook, which runs through the park unculverted. The stream divides for a short stretch with a man-made channel running straight and the original course of the stream to the south, creating an island before meeting up again some 80 metres to the east, which has grass and some mature horse chestnuts and other trees. The northern area was once part of the grounds of Kenton Grange built as Kenton Lodge in 1803-7 for John Lambert, later extended in 1865 and 1896. Other residents included John Gwynne, inventor of the centrifugal pump and Frederick Sang, artist and architect. The house had a small garden behind the house. The land extending to the Wealdstone Brook was owned in the 1920s by a Mr Jeffress, who built the picturesque cottage estate in c.1920 and whose son Joseph Jeffress developed a miniature railway round the embankment of the stream, engaging companies to run the trains. Jeffress sold the land in c.1952 to Middlesex County Council who turned Kenton Grange into an old people's home, and the remaining land into a public park.

Woodcock Park has a good collection of trees and shrubs, with numerous mature specimens, including an 130 year old Chinese wing-nut, copper beech, single-leafed ash, cedar, holm oak, Oriental plane, various ornamental conifers, dawn redwood, an ancient mulberry at least 160 years old, willows and a number of mature oaks. Kenton Grange is now St Luke's Hospice in the private grounds of which the Victorian stabling block and two lodges remain. The area of the park south of the Wealdstone Brook is more open with recreational facilities, largely grass and some scattered trees, mostly recent planting although there are a few older horse chestnuts, weeping willow and poplars.

Woodcock Park Bowling Club has been playing here since 1953, although plans for a bowls club date from 1938 when William Harrison, a member of Kenton Bowling Club, held discussions with Wembley Borough Council. Work on digging the foundations for the green began in 1938, but had to be abandoned at the outbreak of WWII. During the war the site of the present pavilion was used as ARP (Air Raid Precautions) Post 17 and local Fire Watchers carried out training exercises on the area that is now the bowling green. The green and Bowls Pavilion were completed for the Inaugural Meeting of the Club on 30 January 1953 at which time Club Officers were elected and a Constitution agreed. The Club's first fixture was a game played against a team from St John's Church.

Friends of Woodcock Park was set up to preserve and care for the park, and collaborates with local schools, charities, businesses and other organisations. A variety of projects have been undertaken, including improvements to the children's play area, an outdoor gym, and a mural that depicts the park and its wildlife, flora and fauna, the result of a joint project with St Gregory's Catholic Science College. In recent years Woodcock Park has won London in Bloom Gold awards three years in a row. 

In 2022, the Pollinator Biodiversity Garden on the Woodgrange side of Woodcock Park was created in a small area of the park once known as the Rose Garden that had been neglected for over 15 years. Invasive brambles had colonised the whole fenced-off area, but there was a problem with anti-social activity here as a result of a broken fence. This area was nearly lost to development, but was saved through the efforts of the local Friends of Woodcock Park group, who then worked to restore it, largely through efforts of a retired Science Headteacher. The team of volunteers took over 12 hours to remove the brambles and dig over the plot, which exposed a very mature vine growing from a hidden corner of the plot. In the spring of 2023, with an NCIL Grant from Brent Council, the team was able to improve the fertility of the plot and with the additional support of a local primary and secondary school to plant a series of fruit trees, fruit bushes, bulbs and a range of pollinator flowers including a variety of Salvias. The project has continued to flourish in 2024 and a wide range of insects and birds have been spotted enjoying the flowers, seeds and fruits. The ground of the plot has been kept moist and generally weed free using a large quantity of wood chippings from felled trees in the park. The volunteers have also been supported in their watering efforts from the developers of the Clock Tower next to the garden. Practically all of the trees, bushes and perennial flowering plants have survived two summers so far and are beginning to be established. The aim is to minimise maintenance and maximise biodiversity opportunities on this historic site. The biodiversity garden is open to the public.

Further Information

Grid Reference TQ177885
Size in hectares 11
Site Ownership LB Brent
Site Management Parks Service
Dates 1803
Listed Structures Kenton Grange is locally listed.
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 Brent
In Conservation Area No
Tree Preservation Order Not known
Nature Conservation Area Yes - Local or Boro II Importance (part/see note)
Green Belt No
Metropolitan Open Land No
Special Policy Area No
Other LA Designation Public Open Space. NCA along course of Wealdstone Brook

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

  • Brent
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Northwick Circle was laid out as part of the Northwick Park Estate developed by Captain E G Spencer-Churchill, who had inherited the Kenton estate in 1912. The opening of 2 stations provided an incentive to Spencer-Churchill's plans to develop an estate of high class residences, with a tennis and social club as the focal point. Although 3 roads were laid out by 1914, the estate was not built until the 1920s/30s, and was less ambitious than planned. The Palaestra was built as the estate's social and sports club in 1923, set in 5 acres of grounds at Northwick Circle. In 1953 it became the home of the Harrow District Masonic Society, and remains set in a pleasant grassed area with scattered trees and shrubs.

Northwick Circle, June 2001. Photo: S Williams
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The site, which comprises two adjacent sports fields, is partly public open space and partly sports ground. Its recreational use dates from at least the 1920s. In 1920 an area of land at the west of Tenterden Fields was bequeathed for sports and later named after John Billam; a large flat open space, it had a pavilion built for Selfridge's Sports Ground, which was opened by Princess Wiasenski, daughter of Gordon Selfridge; the pavilion was subsequently acquired by Middlesex County Council and was later in private use. An aerial photograph taken in 1928 shows the sports field and pavilion; the OS Map of 1935 shows the site laid out with playing fields, tennis courts and pavilions.
  • Harrow
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Up to 1920 Kenton remained a small village but it grew rapidly as housing was built, largely as a result of the railway coming to the area. Laid out c.1920s, pre-WWII Kenton Recreation Ground was smaller, the north-west corner then being taken up with Wealdstone Sewage Farm, and part of the site was a Council rubbish tip.