Golders Hill Park


Golders Hill Park is a formal park in Golders Green, London. It is managed by the City of London Corporation as part of the parkland and commons in and near Hampstead Heath, and is part of the Hampstead Heath Site of Metropolitan Importance for Nature Conservation. Unlike the rest of the Heath, Golders Hill Park is closed at night.
It adjoins the West Heath part of Hampstead Heath and is on the site formerly occupied by a large house which was bombed during World War II. Its main characteristic is an expanse of grass, but it also has a formal, beautifully tended, flower garden next to a duck pond with a small humpback bridge, a separate water garden, which leads onto a larger pond with both black and white swans, a separate area for fallow deer, near to a recently renovated small zoo. There are also tennis courts, a playground and croquet lawns. A restaurant stands at the top of the park, on the site of the original house.
During the summer, children's activities are organised and through June and July there is live music on the bandstand on Sunday afternoons. Unlike most of Hampstead Heath, dogs must be kept on a lead in the park.
The zoo contains a variety of animals and birds, such as donkeys, coatis, rheas, maras, red junglefowl, Lady Amherst's pheasants, red-legged seriemas, ring-tailed lemurs, kookaburras, sacred ibis, cattle egrets, little egrets, Eurasian eagle-owls and white-naped cranes.