Greatfields Park

Greatfields Park has a wide range of facilities. They include football and other games, tennis, running, walking, a playground and toilets. There are also quiet areas in ornamental gardens and opportunities for viewing wildlife and wild flowers. Shops and transport links are nearby. The park has held the Green Flag award, recognising it as a good and well managed park, for several years now. 

Facilities

  • childrens playground
  • playing field
  • outdoor gym equipment for all ages
  • walking routes
  • ornamental gardens
  • quiet sitting areas
  • orchard

     

History

The park was created in the early 1920s after Barking Urban District Council bought the land from Movers Farm for £330. The park was officially opened in 1926. The park was laid out as part of the construction of the Greatfields housing estate after the First World War. Original plans (dated 1921) for the park show a very simple layout with a boundary path and shrub borders surrounding a large grassed area. At that stage it was called Movers Lane Playing Fields or Greatfields Recreation Grounds and it contained three football pitches. The current network of paths, trees and flowerbeds is a later addition. However the park was still laid out in a traditional Victorian style with a wide perimeter carriage road and bordered by shrub beds, with ornamental gardens within it. This is the layout that still exists today.

Accessibility

Most of the park is accessible to wheelchairs. The park can be reached by bus routes 173, 287, 368, 387, 673, 687, E1 and E2. The nearest tube stations are Barking and Upney. There is no car park, and parking is restricted in most surrounding roads.

Venue
location

Greatfields Road / Movers Lane
Barking
United Kingdom