The North London borough of Enfield can sometimes feel a world away from the capital, even though it's just a little over 10 miles from the city center. With 16 conservation areas, 900 hectares of parkland, and a surprising number of open spaces and woodland, the borough has long provided a temporary escape for Londoners in need of a dose of fresh air and nature. However, Enfield has also long enjoyed a potent role in the capital’s history, as evidenced in the 400 or more listed buildings locally, many of them open to visitors.
Dominating its own estate of rolling parkland, Grade I-listed Forty Hall provides a vital link between modern Enfield and the borough’s former prominence as a hunting ground for English royalty and residential area for Jacobean aristocracy. Built in 1632 for the then Lord Mayor of London, Forty Hall provides an example of the great English country house, and recently underwent restoration. Visitors can enjoy guided tours of the house, art gallery and visitor center, or take a picnic in the grounds, with dogs welcome. Nearby in the grounds are the remains of Elsyng Palace, Henry VIII’s Tudor hunting lodge.
During the times of Henry VIII, Queen Elizabeth I and James I, Enfield Chase formed part of the epic Royal Hunting Forest, a majestic expanse of meadow and forest just 12 miles from the City of London, where monarchs and their entourages could hunt deer. Although the chase closed in 1777, today’s Trent Country Park shelters the remains of the forest. The park covers 400 acres and presents a walker’s paradise, with wide fields, lakes, and forest abundant with oak, sweet chestnut and willow. Whitewebbs Park, too, was once part of the royal forest, but today its 196 acres feature a 18-hole golf course, nature trails and ornamental pond. The manor house was famously a meeting place for Gunpowder Plot conspirators.
While it's not unusual for England’s stately homes to include gardens, two of Enfield’s finest are ample testament to vaulting ambition. Capel Manor Gardens, overlooked by a Georgian Manor house, actually dates from the 13th century. The contemporary site of London’s only specialist college for plant and animal study, the estate gardens encompass several styles: Japanese, Australian, Victorian and Van Gogh-inspired. The nearby Myddleton Estate is another Georgian manor house with gardens built by self-taught horticulturalist and botanist Edward Bowles. Visitors can indulge themselves among exotic plants, a carp lake, an Alpine meadow and even a Victorian conservatory with a 100-year-old wisteria.
In the heart of Enfield Town, the market square is an historic landmark dating from the 14th century. The market received its charter from Edward I in 1303. Today, the square is a working market open three times a week. Nearby is the historic St. Andrew’s Church, dating from the 13th century, with its impressive 16th-century stained glass windows and an imposing organ whose casing dates from the mid-18th century. The quirkily named King & Tinker Pub is one of the oldest pub sites in England. The current alehouse harks back to the 16th century, but a pub of some sort has occupied the location for over a thousand years. Legend has it that James I and Guy Fawkes both drank at the pub, although not simultaneously.
The town of Enfield is arguably synonymous with two inventions which between them had significant impacts on the 20th century. Unfortunately, visitors can no longer visit one of them -- the factory that produced Enfield motorbikes, as the facility long ago relocated to India. Luckily, though, the Royal Small Arms Heritage Center still showcases the (now closed) factory which produced the other invention, the famous Lee Enfield rifle. The Grade II-listed building, near Enfield Lock tube station, also features an 18th-century clock tower.
