Weekend Walks – Trent Park

The obelisk was brought from Wrest Park, by owner Sir Philip Sassoon in 1934 I had a lovely walk in Trent Park on Saturday, which is in Oakwood, North London. The park has been home to a Middlesex University campus since 1992, before which it was part of Middlesex Polytechnic. The grand house and its grounds have a rich history, daing back to the fourteenth century, which you can read more about here. 

Two sphinxes flank the stairs down to the grounds, at the back of the mansion

As you may know, I am very interested in statues and can’t resist staring at them at every opportunity. Luckily for me, London has more statues than any other city in the world. Most of the time, I find myself rushing past them like everybody else, trying to get to the next place. Occasionally I make the time to stop and look at them properly. I think it’s brilliant that we have such beautiful art on public display for everyone to enjoy.

I haven’t yet been able to find out more about this particular statue, but hopefully I will, because in a few weeks time I am going on a Trent Park History and Mystery walk! I find it fascinating – who are the characters and what does the lion at the bottom symbolise? In the picture below you can see a close-up of the lion’s open mouth – perhaps it’s roaring?

My favourite statue in Trent Park

The vast park is home to hundreds of trees. I remember when I studied at Middlesex Uni, finding out that a new tree is planted to commemorate the life of the university’s lectureres after their death. What a lovely way to be remembered.

This statue depicts Venus, and stands to the right of the mansion house

This fallen tree is almost completely hollow in the middle

The Mansion Building, Trent Park

You can read more about the statues outside St Paul’s Cathedral which I blogged about earlier.