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Parkland Walk landgrab (?) at adventure playground
Some unfriendly fencing has gone up all around the adventure playground area of Parkland Walk on Crouch Hill (is this within the geographical scope of this forum?).
I wonder if anyone knows anything about this and whether it can or should be challenged in some way?
I find it distrubing to see parts of Parkland Walk effectively being privatised like this and want to make sure it's not the start of a slippery slope!
I wonder if anyone knows anything about this and whether it can or should be challenged in some way?
I find it distrubing to see parts of Parkland Walk effectively being privatised like this and want to make sure it's not the start of a slippery slope!
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Miss Annie may still be seething about the loss of the old totem poles there.
It might be legal, and that bit of the walk may not be public, but I wouldn't be surprised if this is questionable.
All I do know is that I'm feeling alarmed at seeing fences suddenly go up for the first time in decades on what has appeared to be freely accessible and beautiful land.
Children play there all the time.
My understanding was it was a playground open to the public at all times.
What is dangerous is the skateboard ramp that is the worst built I have ever seen (and the wrong dimensions - too tall / too narrow).
Islington council got mugged off by the shonky contractor (a playground maker not skate ramp maker) who flogged it to them, despite extended discussions with skaters (including me) who pointed this out both before and after the build and Islington never got the cowboys back to fix it.
The skate ramp suddenly disappeared a couple of days ago - no idea if it's going to be replaced. It was lousy, too big, and attracted lots of complaints about noise from the flats across the Parkland Walk because it was made of metal (not fibreglass like the previous one) and sounded like the crack of doom opening when kids played on it.
There has been a ramp there in a couple of different forms for maybe 30 years - it was quite a famous spot at one point - probably predates a fair few of any residents complaining.
This is from R.A.D magazine in 1989 on a skate comp held at the Parkland Walk on the then much bigger vert ramp, it was to support the walk as there was a threat to build a road down it.
http://www.whenwewasrad.co.uk/wp-content/images/81/rad81_50.jpg
http://www.whenwewasrad.co.uk/wp-content/images/81/rad81_51.jpg
Article here
http://www.whenwewasrad.co.uk/index.php/2006/05/08/crouch-end-skateboard-competition/#more-172
http://www.whenwewasrad.co.uk/index.php/2006/05/09/parkland-walk-skateboard-competition-part-3/
I hope the council plan to replace the ramp, I am going to start badgering them about it again. This is a piece of London skate history and a facility for sport at teenagers that people should fight for.
Also, my kids are going to be hugely disappointed about the playground being fenced off. It's a great spot for them to play and is no more dangerous (probably less) than any of the open all the time playgrounds in our parks.
My understanding was that Cape is part of Islington anyway, so I don't see the issue.
However, whilst I was concerned when I first saw it that it would result in the play area being locked and out of bounds when the Cape is closed, so far (early days) this appears not be the case. Went up last Sunday with the little one - the new gates at the top were left wide open and there were other kids playing there too.
Will be monitoring this closely though and will be sure to complain if they are locking it up - so far so good though. Hopefully they can get round to repairing the zip-wire which appears to have been out of action for years now.
No idea what's happening to where the skateboard ramp was.
I'm a local Islington resident who heads up there regularly, whose kids play on it, albeit not at Cape, got involved when the skate ramp was so terribly replaced, and I wasn't aware of anything.
I'd be interested to know.
https://www.islingtongazette.co.uk/news/heritage/iconic-parkland-walk-skate-ramp-removed-by-islington-council-1-6002073
The first is the intro:
The community is "split 50-50" after an "iconic" skateboard ramp was ripped out of the abandoned railway track linking Finsbury Park and Highgate by Islington Council earlier this month.
The'iconic' skateboard ramp wasn't ripped out. The crap one that the council got mis-sold in 2014 by some playground-manufacturer shysters and never got them to fix was removed.
That unfortunately replaced the previous one, which got burnt out by a scumbags with a motor scooter, and did get skated.
It was that one removed in 2013 that replaced the 'iconic' vert ramp.
@Peter Crumb The reason nobody skated this most recent one was because the council got flogged an unskateable ramp. The panels weren't flush, the coping (pipe that runs along the top) had gaps in it rather than being one continuous run, it was too high and too narrow and a crappy metal material.
What makes the whole thing so shambolic, is that I remember months of correspondence with Islington Council trying to help them get a decent ramp put in - and it seemed they were actually going to get a properly-made one from a skate ramp maker.
Then all of a sudden there was a reversal and this piece of rubbish arrived (probably costing a small fortune).
I just looked through my emails and see I described it to the council chap at the time as 'the worst put together skateboard ramp I have seen' and said they should not pay for it, or demand their money back.
I pointed them in the direction of the then Three Amigos skate shop owner instrumental in getting the Clissold Park bowls built, if they needed a professional opinion.
The council said they were in a snagging period with the contractor and that was the last I heard. It never got fixed.
Anyway, in other Parkland Walk related news.
This is from the Islington Gazette: Scandal' of the unfinished £3m Northern line extension from Finsbury Park
https://www.islingtongazette.co.uk/news/heritage/scandal-of-the-unfinished-3m-northern-line-extension-from-finsbury-park-1-4896143
It's because it's from a newspaper.
I believe he also did a talk last week and is doing a walk, those may be news.
I'd agree, the decision not to extend the Northern Line along the Parkland Walk may no longer count as news.
You never know, some local journalist might copy it from here accurately in the future.