One of the little gems of Walthamstow life is a little sister to the St James Park in the centre of London.
Instead of members of the senior civil service meeting journalists, lobbyists, sources, spooks and other assorted undercover handlers, our St James Park is populated by young children, teenagers and adults doing the kind of more civilised things which such places were originally designed for.
The park has play areas for children ranging from toddlers (also catered for at Coppermill Park, itself not too much of a toddle and trike away), to the bigger kids of all ages who want to lean back on the swings. Strictly speaking, these are not supposed to be able to take the sixteen stone weaklings who have been known to have a go when the place is not too busy, but they can take the weight.
Any local man-child who is too self-conscious for this can also play football on the very large expanses of the green and open lawns, or woo his beloved on a bench towards the back of the park, drinking in the heady air of the scented roses which form a screen to the Lower Hall allotments beyond.
The overwhealming impression given by the park is one of space, enhanced by the simply magnificent avenues of trees which border it and form a passage through the centre.
Take the avenue to the right, at the entrance on Essex Road opposite Lynmouth Road (which leads eventually via Station Road to St James's Street itself). You may see, to the extreme right, a neglected border overgown with bindweed and columbine for most of the year, when the japanese knotweed is not encroaching from the railway, but this is a minor distraction to one of the most tremendous avenues of trees anywhere in London. This leads toward the back of the park to where the roses and benches start, and also to the entrance to the allotments. Behind these, away from the park itself is a rather fetid stream whose banks are currently being cleared, revealing a potentially very fine willow-lined walk, and the Lower Hall Sports Ground. Many people do not make it that far, choosing to jog in circles round St James Park itself, or simply to lie on the grass in Spring, Summer and Autumn and enjoy the civilisation within our midst.