Claremont Park is now Open

Claremont Park is a neighbourhood park for Brent Cross Town and the local area, repurposing part of the existing Claremont Way Open Space.

Our aspirations for the park are that it’ll be a flexible space that strongly promotes health and wellbeing explains Oliver Barden from Townshends Landscape Architects.

We had a set of principles we wanted to bring to life in the park which included encouraging social spaces, improving connectivity, being accessible and inclusive and creating real opportunities for play, leisure, exercise and sport.

“In the beginning we faced some challenges because the existing space was on different levels. We’ve tried to use those level changes to allow people to easily walk through the space while enjoying a rolling landscape. In some areas the level change was a bonus. For example, the play area is positioned in a part of the site that has quite a dramatic level change, so there are slopes for scrabbling up and down,” continues Oliver. “We’ve also carved into some level changes to create amphitheatres where people can gather together in a natural meeting spot.”

As with any park, nature is at the forefront and because of the existing wooded space we thought the woodland character should run throughout. With this in mind we’ve created spaces for animals and insects as well as people. “There are bird and bat boxes dotted around and the species of trees and ground level plants have been selected because they have high wildlife and insect value. The aim is to increase the biodiversity of the park and create new habitats,” explains Oliver.

Development Manager Suzie Coucher expands, “Alongside retaining the existing woodland, we’ve planted over 300 trees which are predominantly a mix of UK native species, from birch and beech to ash and weeping willows. We want to make the space feel like a really lush place to be – an oasis for the neighbourhood. As a result, we’ve ensured there is year around interest with trees that will blossom at different times of the year, trees that come into their own in the autumn and wildflower meadows for the summer.

In a nod to the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, we saved one of our trees to plant at a ceremony as part of The Queen’s Green Canopy project. The beautiful multi-stemmed hornbeam tree has a permanent plaque on it commemorating the occasion.

There’s also a strong theme of water that runs through Claremont Park, which is a result of the design team conducting historical research about the local waterways and the River Brent. “There’s a big pond at the heart of the space and a swale of water on one edge which channels water into the pond system,” says Oliver. “Water is always a draw for people so we’ve added a deck over the water that is stepped down so people can really get close to the water’s edge. On the other side there’s a sloped area with plenty of boulder seating which has come from quarries in Purbeck on the Jurassic Coast and Hereford on the Welsh border. As well as being an interesting aspect for people, it’s also another habitat for animals and there are already ducks living on the pond.”

Water and play also unite in Claremont Park and we worked with local schools to select the name The Water Meadows for the adventure play area. “The play towers sit in an imaginary area of water, which we created by using different colour surfacing with blue for water, green to reflect marshland and lots of sand and stone,” says Suzie. “The climbing walls are inspired by dam edges and there are water towers and pumps where children can feed water down a ramp.”

Designed by Erect Architecture, the play area has a range of play activities to suit children of all ages and abilities. The structures have been created to invite children to come up with their own way of playing, from climbing and balancing on the equipment, to encouraging roleplay and collaborative games.