A beautiful green space
on the borders of Edgware & Stanmore

Our parkrun is held every Saturday at 9am throughout the year and regularly attracts around 200 runners and walkers of all abilities.

Only good friends meet at The Good Friends Café, where there is a wonderful selection of hot and cold drinks, savoury snacks, teatime goodies, home-made ice cream and lollies on offer. Our cafe is now closed until the spring.

Canons Park is nestled between the borders of Edgware and Stanmore, it has a fascinating history dating back hundreds of years.

The park boasts wide open spaces for walking, sports and picnicking, with shady woodland walks with wonderful displays of spring bluebells and wild garlic (from late April to early May). It has a family friendly area with an adventure playground, supersized climbing boulder, basketball hoop and outdoor exercise gym. The park has a flat terrain and a continuous pathway around its perimeter, enabling wheelchair users, walkers, joggers, and families with pushchairs to explore the woodland and open spaces without having to encounter steps or steep hills.

Dogs are welcome in all areas but the council asks that dog owners put their pets on a lead in the Memorial Garden, so that those who come there for a little peace and quiet – or are afraid of dogs – can enjoy the surroundings. ​Please also remember that the pond at the centre of the garden is home to a variety of wildlife, including frogs and newts, so allowing your dog – or your children! – to enter the pond is both anti-social and harmful to these little creatures! We should also point out that there may be glass or other objects lying on the bottom of the pond, due to anti-social behaviour which, together with naturally-occurring algae, can make it dangerous and very slippery.

Could you run the Good Friends Café?

You will need to be friendly and interested in meeting people, have at least one years’ experience in catering and/or running a café (references will be needed) and be prepared to open every day from spring to autumn, with the option of opening during the winter months.

If you think you might fit the bill, please Contact Us

Shaw Trust

The Harrow branch of the nationwide charity, Shaw Trust, is based at the Bothy compound in Canons Park. The Friends were delighted to help facilitate the arrival of this wonderful charity, which teaches students with learning difficulties about horticulture. The students work in the Bothy and out in the park, concentrating on the George V Memorial Garden, where they litter pick, tidy up, weed flower beds and plant new bulbs and flowers.

Work in the Bothy compound includes potting up seedlings, care of plants and helping to create hanging baskets and other floral items, which can be purchased by the public any weekday from 9.30am to 2.30pm.

About the Park

For a map of the park please vist the Gallery of the Visiting the Park pages.

Audio Walking Tour

To find out more about the history of the park you can now follow our free one-hour audio walking tour by downloading the VoiceMap App and searching for Canons Park. If you can’t make it to the park you can even listen to the tour at home!

The Trees of Canons Park

The park hosts a wonderful collection of trees, some of them quite rare.  For more information click on Trees. See our leaflet holder next to the notice board at the Bothy building for our new Tree Identification Leaflet, which will also be available from the Good Friends Cafe or our Gallery.

Involving the Community

If you’re looking for a way to get more involved in the park, why not take part in some of the regular events that take place throughout the year, like our Kids’ Fun Fair Day, held every summer, or volunteer for our Gardening Club work sessions during the spring and summer in the stunning George V Memorial Garden?

Park Safety

We are regarded as a safe and friendly park but incidents do happen, as in any park in the country. If you do not report it, the police will never know and can do little to help. Harrow Council does not employ a dog warden but if you witness an incident regarding dogs that are out of control please try to take a photo, as long as that does not endanger you or your companions. This will help the police to identify the dogs and their owners so that they can take appropriate action to apprehend them.

Important Contact Numbers

In case of an emergency or threatening anti-social behaviour in the park, please dial 999.

​For non-emergency calls to the police, such as for non-threatening anti-social behaviour, vandalism or criminal damage, please dial 101 or if it is after the event, lodge a report on the Met Police website.

There is now a heart defibrillator situated in Canons Park, a few yards from the Good Friends Cafe. All instructions for use are given once the unit has been accessed. You will need a mobile phone to call 999 in order to obtain the code to release the defibrillator from its cabinet.

To enquire about items lost or found in the park, or to contact the Friends on any other matter, please email Contact Us