Grovelands Park

Grovelands Park is a public park in Southgate and Winchmore Hill, London, that originated as a private estate. The park is Grade II* listed on the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens.Grovelands, the house on the western side of the park, is Grade I listed on the National Heritage List for England.HistoryThe mansion, which was initially called 'Southgate Grove', was built in 1797-98 to the designs of John Nash for Walker Gray, a Quaker brewer. The grounds were landscaped by Humphry Repton. In 1816 the building was described as being "a regular building of Ionic order, and presents a fine example of that beautiful style". Lucinda Lambton has called the building an "idiosyncratically flounced, classical villa", and mentions that the owner bought much of the parkland to avoid the sight of other people's chimneys. She goes on to describe the interior: "Inside, there survives one of the most delicate delights in all London: Nash's octagonal dining-room, painted as if you are in a bamboo birdcage, looking our through the bars at the fields, woods and sky."After Gray's death the property was acquired by John Donnithorne Taylor (also connected to the Taylor Walker & Co Brewery), whose family continued to live at Grovelands up to World War I.