About Halliwick Recreation Ground

Halliwick Recreation Ground is a public park located within a residential area of North London. The park includes tennis courts, a children’s playground, a natural basin with a permanent body of water, and a network of paths and seating areas that connect visitors to the park’s facilities and open spaces.

LUC worked in close collaboration with the London Borough of Barnet on the design and implementation of a Flood Alleviation Scheme (FAS) that aims to reduce local flood risk while enhancing the park’s landscape character, biodiversity and recreational value. The project introduces a series of Sustainable Drainage System (SuDS) features that manage surface water naturally within the park landscape while maintaining the park as an attractive and usable public space throughout the year.

By combining flood management infrastructure with improved paths, play opportunities and ecological enhancements, the scheme transforms the park into a multifunctional landscape that supports drainage, recreation, biodiversity and accessibility.

Design Highlights

The design approach integrates water management into the everyday experience of the park. Rather than treating flood infrastructure as purely technical elements, the scheme incorporates these features as part of a cohesive landscape that is both functional and visually engaging. Seasonal water features, landform changes and planted wetland areas create new habitats while helping to shape spaces for recreation and exploration

Key design interventions include a seasonal attenuation pond with marginal planting, shallow swales and an earth-formed basin to manage surface water flows, new accessible pathways, a sunken recreation lawn, a new decking platform overlooking the basin, habitat creation and additional tree planting, improved park entrances, and signage and interpretation.

Together, these features create a resilient landscape that responds to flooding while providing new opportunities for recreation and nature within the park.

What Visitors Will Learn

Visitors will have the opportunity to learn how flood resilience infrastructure can be integrated into a public park landscape to support recreation, biodiversity and accessibility.

The project demonstrates how Sustainable Drainage Systems (SuDS), natural landforms and planting can be used to manage water within a multifunctional public space. Visitors will also be able to explore how landscape-led design can contribute to flood resilience, ecological enhancement and community wellbeing.