North West London’s Best Parks for an Autumn Walk

The park that won over Mark Twain, a view from Wembley to the Shard, and paths that curve on purpose.

Autumn in London. It’s a bit of a crime that the city doesn’t have an anthem of its own to rival Sinatra’s Autumn in New York, because as anyone who’s spent this time of year here can tell you, it’s a mesmerisingly beautiful way to experience the city. Best enjoyed, perhaps, walking under the changing leaves. But where?

Do you head for Primrose Hill? Regent’s? Richmond, if you want to play David Attenborough for the afternoon? None of them would be our pick. It’s North West London that truly gets to claim the title for some of the city’s best park life. Its parks might not have the cultural cachet of their rivals, but what they boast instead is true charm and a local vibe.

Picking a single best park is a fool’s errand. The two-abreast pram stroll, the headphones-in wander and the date spot are all different ideals. So here are four, and what makes each one special.

Gladstone Park, Dollis Hill: for views and long walks

First up, a fun fact, and perhaps a testament to the loveliness of Gladstone Park. Did you know that in 1900, beloved American writer Mark Twain lived in Dollis Hill House, which used to stand in the park? In his own words, he’d “never seen any place that was so satisfactorily situated, with its noble trees and stretch of country, and everything that went to make life delightful, and all within a biscuit’s throw of the metropolis of the world.”

Gladstone Park, named after another of its great admirers, is a late Victorian creation and carries that sense of placid grandeur we associate with the period. Oliver Claude Robson, who designed the park as well as Roundwood Park (featured below), wanted to preserve the area’s natural beauty, and you can still feel it as you walk around. It’s large enough to let you lose track of the surrounding city in its wilder parts, and replete with richly varied vegetation. Duck ponds and hedgerows allude to a sort of old English countryside in the midst of the Borough of Brent. In autumn, the changing colour of the leaves adds to the impression of a quiet, restful retreat.

But perhaps the strongest selling point of all is its summit. Sloping gradually from the south east, the park reaches its peak in the north west, where, on a clear autumn day, you can take in Wembley, the Houses of Parliament, the City, the London Eye and the Shard. A complete panorama of London’s primary landmarks. This crowning vista is the standout feature of a park full of variation, which, together with its considerable size, means you can easily spend a day here, stumbling upon one thing and then the next.

Queen’s Park: for family excursions and activity walks

If you wander around Queen’s Park long enough, you’ll probably start to notice that almost all of its paths are slightly curved. This quirk is a clue to its history as a fairly radical experiment in London green space design. Its designers wanted to do away with the older style of urban park, with its geometrically landscaped gardens, in favour of something that mimicked and flowed from nature itself. To this day, Queen’s Park feels special. Maybe its organic layout subconsciously shapes the feel of it, and that’s the reason for its unique character.

Don’t take this to mean that Queen’s Park is an unkempt scrap of wilderness in the midst of town. Not even a little bit. Few parks could boast more facilities per square metre than the jewel that is Queen’s Park, which features as many as six all-weather tennis courts, an ornamental quiet garden, a children’s animal farm, a café and, of course, its iconic bandstand.

But what makes autumn a particular highlight in Queen’s Park? The lushness of the space, with its abundance of tall trees lining the perimeter, gives it an intense flush of colour as the leaves change. And September marks the date of its annual festival, which imbues the park with an added layer of élan and energy.

Should you somehow contrive to get bored in a place that gives you no end of things to do, you’ve got the bright lights of Salusbury Road just minutes away and a smorgasbord of cafés to choose from.

Queen’s Park is the place for an activity walk before or after hitting the courts, a place to bring the dog or the kids, and to grab a coffee nearby to warm your hands against the crisp autumn chill.

Roundwood Park, Willesden: for a romantic wander

With its wrought-iron gates, mock Elizabethan lodge house and drinking fountain, Roundwood Park makes you feel less like you’re in a London park and more like you’re wandering around a dainty turn-of-the-century painting. The Victorian gazebo, flanked by wooden benches, only adds to the notion. And while the viewing point at the peak might break the spell of timelessness, it does nothing but add to the sense of romance, with its distant view of the Wembley arch and the rest of the north west.

This is a park where you can lose yourself in thought. It has a real sense of tranquillity that you can feel as you walk around. If autumn makes you feel contemplative and you associate the season with days spent deep in thought, or if you’re thinking of bringing a date, this is the park to pick.

Hampstead Heath: for wilderness walks

What is there to say about Hampstead Heath that you don’t already know? We’ve saved this one for last partly because it’s such a slam-dunk it barely needs explaining. The beating green heart of north London is as enchanting this time of year as it is at any other time. Yes, the ponds may not be as inviting to swim in, but the trade-off you get is a stillness and quiet that completely changes the atmosphere compared to the same space in summer or spring.

Parliament Hill is a great place to start your walk from, but so is the south-western corner, nearest Hampstead tube station. This is also where you’ll find a plethora of cafés and pubs to either grab something for the walk, or recuperate after a bracing march across the park, which has its fair share of elevation changes. There’s really nowhere else you can feel as rural in the city as the Heath, and as days get shorter and more time is spent inside, and you start to feel the desperate need for bright and fresh air, there’s nowhere better to go to get it.

Written by Alex Walker, lead writer at North by West, with insights from the Camerons Stiff & Co team.