So today I am back in the capital at a new parkrun that has a lot of meaning to me Lordship Recreation Ground, Tottenham in the Borough of Haringey.

Parks History

This park is over 20 hectares in size and was officially open in June of 1936 with the local community being able to enjoy such delights as the Shell theatre, boating lake.

If you would like to read more about the parks origins dating as far back from 1619 there is a great article by The friends of Lordship Recreation Ground Link

LonDone Again

Today I regained my Greater London parkrun regionnaire status also known to parkrun tourists as LonDone. So, for anyone who does not know it means currently attending 61 events in the capital.

The reason why I chose Lordship Recreation Ground was simple my dad was lifelong Tottenham Hotspur supporter, and this park is just over 1 mile from their stadium, and this is why I am running in his spurs top today.

parkrun Loves cakes

Hopefully everyone loves to celebrate completing a parkrun with a slice of cake, but did you know Tottenham have a cake named after them?

The history of the Tottenham cake goes back to 1901 when the local quakers baked cakes for the local poor children to help celebrate the success of the football club winning the FA cup that year, brilliant story 🙂 Link

There were quite a few tourists for event 22 and it was finally lovely to bump into and chat with fellow tourist friend Cal in personal and I wish her all the best in her future running adventures 🙂

Course

The course is three and a bit laps of Lordship Recreation Ground that is run entirely on well-maintained tarmac footpaths with no real elevation to talk about 🙂

Points to note

• The course is very open and exposed to the weather that was tough running in the wind today.
• Great to run through the heart of the model traffic area.
• In the right conditions, this could be a very fast course to get a timer on

For me, it was just completing it today and getting my London regional status back. I know with a fair bit of training I can break the 30-minute barrier again but until then I was very happy with my time for 35:01

Facilities

Coming from Luton it was easy for me to use public transport and Turnpike Lane tube station is only a mile from the park.

There is street parking available near the park, but you need to make sure that you park in a zone B permit parking area that will give you weekend access, but I would still recommend going by public transport though.

Lordship Hub

Always great at parkrun there are toilet facilities available at the lordship hub before the start of parkrun and is located very close to the start.

For the post run coffee, we retired back to the lordship hub for well refreshments, and I loved their bacon & egg toasted sandwich 🙂

The Hub was built in 2012 as part of a regeneration scheme as a place where the local community can meet up and provides services for them and is run by an army of lovely volunteers. Link

Model Traffic Area

In all the years of parkrun tourism I have never seen a model traffic area incorporated into a parks landscape.

Originally built in 1936 as a fun place for the local children to ride their own or hired bikes and at the same time learn road safely. Link here

Today it’s great to see the model traffic area still being enjoyed and a great local charity Wheely Tots using the facilities engaging through cycling with the local community.

If you are local here is the link if you wish to sign up for a session with Wheely Tots Link

It was so heart-warming seeing community cooperatives like Lordship Hub and charities like Wheely Tots using Lordship Recreation Ground to its full potential for the local people of Tottenham.

In my books you are all truly outstanding people and should be rightly applauded for what you do.

Conclusion

I would like to thank this weeks run director Sarah and her all her team of volunteers for making us all feel extremely welcome. Well done team Lordship 🙂

I think you have got a great community spirit going on at Lordship, and it was a sheer joy meeting you all at parkrun.

So, I am happy signing off completing with another great London parkrun memory,

I will be thinking of my dad this weekend of how much I miss him especially as it’s my birthday on Sunday.

Finally, what next for me, try to complete my Lucky dip tourist list, keep an eye out for any new London parkrun events, but most of all be just being happy running especially at my beloved parkrun.

Anyway, take care everyone until next time,

Best

Mark aka Silent Runner