Downhill Park

Although the Philip Lane entrance isn’t the most exciting, there are a couple of things to keep an eye open for. There’s some lovely London Plane trees and see if you can spot the cork tree off to the right.
Head down a nice avenue of Lime trees, past the playground, and you’ll come out at the flower gardens where, in April, there is some stunning blossom.
To the right are the tennis courts or, if you carry on through the rose gardens, you’ll find some exotic palm trees in amongst the lavender and rose bushes.
Work continues apace, with Froglife, to create the wildlife pond on the other side of the rose garden but if you are feeling hungry and thirsty, choose to head past the tennis courts and pay a visit to the new community café.
This little building and picnic tables is the result of a 10 year campaign to get a community space in the park. An early design fell through due to funding problems, then a plan to get the old Bowling Club building in use fell through when the building was condemned. Undeterred, the Friends lobbied for funding and finally got the current building on the site of the old bowling green, with a café, toilets and baby changing facilities, meeting space and information displays. The organisation running the café is HAIL (Haringey Association for Independent Living) who use the café as a training project for people with learning disabilities, supplemented by volunteers from the community.
We have coffees, sandwiches and cake. The sandwiches are large and delicious, using good quality ingredients including home-​made hoummous, reasonably priced at £3.00 with a small expresso being priced at £1.00. Baby chairs are available and there are two large tables outside. The café is open Wednesday to Sunday at the moment.
It’s a welcome addition to the Park and conveniently just around the corner from the playground. Give it a go this Easter and support a true community venture.

This is my local park and I have to say that I was really surprised when I first found about it. It is so well looked after. There is a few free tennis courts and special areas to play football and basketball.
It is all free and very tidy and neat so I hope it will stay this way because it is very nice.