Parkland Walk / Park safety
  • Kaz
    I sometimes go for a run along the Parkland Walk and around the park itself. I try and get it out of the way in the morning, but I was wondering at what time the parkland walk gets "busy"? I had a run-in with a flasher there many years ago, so always feel more comfortable when there are people around. Are any of you early risers who can tell me what it's like at 6.30-7.30 in the morning?
  • Misscara

    Interesting idea here...

    http://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/home/riba-forgotten-spaces-2011/forgotten-spaces-2011-shortlisted-parkland-walk-gateway-by-stanton-williams-henry-williams/8615968.article#.TfnPkMn8YyQ;facebook

  • graeme
    Very quiet around that time, some dog walkers and other runners. Not many cyclists either. Can get a bit eerie if there's mist in the air...

    Haven't had any bother (touch wood) in about 3 years of running. Though I always keep something in the tank for legging it should I get startled!
  • ArkadyArkady

    @Misscara -a superb idea.

  • miss annie

    Looks like New york's wonderful High Line, a fabulous park and conservation space created on the old elevated railway. http://www.thehighline.org/

  • Mirandola

    @ Misscara - why hasn't this happened already?

  • rainbow_carnage
    When we first moved here, we didn't know what Parkland Walk was called. We referred to it as the Man-Walking-Dog-Finds-Body path. It was much more narrow and overgrown. To be honest, I liked it better. It may have felt less safe (probably wasn't), but it was also less crowded. I'm not awake at 7am. By the time I drag my arse out of bed and get my running shoes on, Parkland Walk is full of families, cyclists and dog walkers.

    I love The High Line, but it's completely different from Parkland Walk. It's right in the middle of the city, where there aren't many public spaces. It's full of restaurants, bars and tourists. It's nice to go up there and sit on a bench on a sunny day, but you wouldn't go for a run there.
  • miss annie

    They are both excellent venues for a nice sit down - I don't do running.

  • taff bach

    When I worked on the buses I once got dropped on the end of the walkway at 11 night. i walked home in terror. This is our space and the more we occupy it the safer we all should feel. I love the walkway and twenty years ago I met the man who set it up. Is this what a forum like this is all about?

  • Misscara

    @mirandola - I don't think there are any plans to do this, it was an architectural design competition.

  • andy

    A couple of times I have walked home from Highgate along Parkland Walk very late at night. My double-bluff based logic was that as no-one in their right mind would walk down it at 3am, people would not think to lurk there at 3am in the hope of committing crimes against right-thinking people.

    Furthermore, by confidently walking down it at 3am you are at best signalling yourself as a person not of right mind and therefore a high risk for a mugger.

    It made sense to me at least.

  • Kaz
    It would be great if the joined the two parts. I've never managed to find the beginning of the northern bit from HIghgate. Might say more about me than anything else though.
  • ADGS
    Andy: that's always been my logic too, though I've generally bolstered the impression of being a bit of a dubious target with a bit of details work - like being a very drunk man in a dinner jacket carrying a log.
  • sg_mike
    There's a fair bit which "goes on" in the evenings around the bridge which goes over UTP, but that seems to stop around midnight or so.
  • gem
    The other day I saw a man with his bright pink shorts pulled down sitting on a bench towards the Finsbury Park end of Parkland Walk, displaying himself to the world. It was 1.30pm!!!
  • The ginger monkey
    I've often seen gentlemen in bushes, so to speak. And always felt safe. Not saying the two are necessarily related, mind...
  • Kaz
    Starting to wish I never posed the question! Men in the bushes, man displaying himself at 1.30 pm.... Oh well, I guess I have an excuse not to ever run now!
  • Misscara

    A friend of mine and her husband like doing it over the side of the SHR bridge at dusk.

  • Marquis

    None of my running routes has so far included the Parkland Walk, but I may well change my routines now. Sounds exciting!

  • Misscara

    I don't mean every day. I mean when the fancy takes them.

  • Four Eyes
    @Misscara Umm, who are this couple you refer to?! I'm presuming I must know them also? Incidentally how did you find out this information :S
  • Misscara

    She told me.

  • dorothy

    Not the parkland walk, but the other day I left my bike locked in the park outside the cafe. Very distracted, I managed to completely forget that I'd cycled there and walked home. I remembered 4 days later. I went to fetch it, expecting to find, maybe the frame and a wheel. It was completely intact, even the natty easily removable lights were still on it. It all seemed wrong somehow, with the park being possibly safer than my front garden, but was a nice surprise.

  • miss annie

    I left my handbag in the public toilets in the Plaza shopping centre on Oxford Street last summer. I had lots of other bags and was dashing about so didn't realise for about half an hour. I went back and it was still there with everything still inside!

    It does restore one's faith in the human race.

  • gardener-joegardener-joe
    Some years ago, after a certain hour in the evening, the Parkland Walk was always good for outdoor liasions between lonely gentlemen. (OK, so telly was dull some nights!). It seemed to be a neat negotaited sunset hand over (scuse the seeming pun) from the dog-walkers, keep-fitters and families to the outdoor cruisers, with an equally neat sunrise handback the following morning. The upshot was that the place always appeared well-peopled by all shades of the local community, and as safe as anywhere else outdoors in SG 24/7.

    Perhaps no longer ...
  • smithy8383
    I would just like to put that over the last week, when walking the dogs I have seen 2 seperate men playing with themselves hiding in the bushes.. and in broad daylight, with many joggers, cyclists and dog walkers .. I know that since the park police have moved out that not many walk down parkland wak anymore.. and how much cctv is there.. if any..

    It was a shock to me to see this, esp when I walk my dogs alone..
  • Kaz

    Seems it might not be all about weirdos waiting in bushes... :( http://cms.met.police.uk/met/boroughs/haringey/04how_are_we_doing/appeals/man_found_with_injuries_in_n8

  • ArkadyArkady

    Does this mean I can have my railway?

  • Kaz

    I hope not. Aside from the weirdos in bushes etc I really like the Parkland Walk.

  • odd stewartodd stewart
    I run it from stapleton hall road to highgate and back when I can be bothered to keep fit. It's a nice run. Recently though I was stopped by police who asked me if I'd seen anything suspicious as there had been an 'incident' there at 130pm the previous day. I have seen men in bushes too but they looked like they were picking berries.
  • therattle
    @domnextmen
    "Picking berries", eh? That's a new one for me.

    Wife and I were discussing Parkland Walk the other day (we were walking there on Saturday - to my shame, for my first time). Giving it the NY High Line treatment just would't be appropriate. I like the slightly rough and ready approach, the uneven steps, etc. It works, and feels appropriate. (It's cheap, too!)
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