Projects and Issues
St Paul's Fountain
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A committee has been set up to investigate the renovation of the St. Paul's Fountain in the old pleasure gardens section of the park.
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Dog-Free area
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The Friends of Priory Park are keen to re-establish the Philosophers' Garden as dog-free. This fenced-off area is mostly used by carers and young children. Many park users would like this to be an area where dogs are not permitted to enter at any time.
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The Philosophers' Garden Pond, July 2020
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During 2019, Priory Park played host to the YMCA North London Fun Run & Festival, Amusement World, Carter’s Steam Fair and Pop Up Screens. The council have now passed a contribution of £3600 to the Friends of Priory Park in the form of an Environmental Impact Fee.
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Friends of Priory Park will be using some of the funding to refurbish and enhance the Pond in the Philosophers' Garden. In order to restore the health of the pond we will empty the pond (retaining as much pond water and wildlife as possible) and remove silt, rubbish and duckweed. We will repair the liner, recover the base and refill the pond.
The Pond contains the artwork “The Drop” by local artist Marilyn Collins commissioned by FOPP for the millennium. The Drop was originally designed to function as a fountain to aerate the pond but the limitations of the solar powered pumps meant the fountain has not been functional for a number of years. As part of refurbishing the pond we will install a new smaller fountain pump to compliment The Drop, and increase the flow of air in the pond.
Our project also seeks to replace the fencing around the pond to enhance its viewing accessibility and maintenance.
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Refurbishment of the pond, October 2020
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FOPP have set in place plans to refurbish and enhance the Pond in the Philosophers’ Garden to restore the health of the pond and encourage a diversity of wildlife. We are planning to improve the visibility of the pond with a new surrounding fence while preserving as much of the Hawthorn Hedge originally planted by the Friends Group in the 1990s. Work in the summer of 2020 removed a large amount of overgrowth from the pond enclosure and many park goers expressed surprise as the pond and The Drop artwork (by local artist Marilyn Collins) were revealed, together with a mature Buddleia and Blackthorn (Sloe).
A new solar powered pump is on order – hopefully this will be installed before Xmas 2020.
Wooden Mushrooms in the Philosophers' garden
In partnership with Elite Transformations, replacement wooden mushrooms have been made for the Philosophers' garden. The next stage is to decide how to fix them into the ground.
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Hiroshima Tree
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A cherry tree was planted in the Ornamental Garden, between 1960 and 1980 approximately, to commemorate those who lost their lives in the Hiroshima bombing. Haringey don't seem to have any record of it, and have lost the plaque. It died earlier this year of a fungal infection called Ganoderma, and was felled and the stump ground out. It was probably a Prunus 'Kanzan'. A replacement tree was planted in October 2020.
FOPP will later reinstate the dedication plaque.
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If anyone remembers anything about the original Hiroshima Tree, please contact us.
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Replacement of play equipment
New and refurbished equipment was installed in the playground in September 2020. This was funded partly by a fundraising project organised by The Friends of Priory Park and partly by Haringey Council.