Another entry in an occasional series of reviews of London’s outdoor exercise spaces.
Overview:
From the late nineties up to 2005, I lived in Highgate Village, N6. This quaint adjunct to Hampstead Heath, is often overshadowed in people’s minds by the glitzier, more celeb-dominated Hampstead proper.
Whilst living on North Road, I would cross Archway Road and walk up Muswell Hill Road to go for a run in Highgate Wood. The park contains 70 acres of ancient woodland, a cricket pitch, a children’s playground and the Pavilion Café.
Stations:
The wood’s mini-trim trail, is situated at the far end of the cricket pitch, leading up to the practice nets.
Its three stations are: push up platform, parallel bars and pull up bars. This may seem like not worth a trip but the essential element of any trim trail (a facility for completing pull ups) is amply supplied by the three pull up bars plus the parallel bars.
The rest of your workout can be improvised. As the Wood is a rougher environment than other outdoor gyms I’ve used, you can use numerous tree stumps as step up boxes and fallen trees can be hurdles during a run.
Privacy:
The wood is dense with oak and hornbeam and provides many little private areas that you can utilise for bodyweight exercises.
Public Facilities:
There are two sets. One is next to the children’s playground and the other is found behind the Pavilion Café. There’s a drinking fountain within the Wood, roughly located behind the Café.
Advantages:
The tree-lined trail that circles the Woods affords a good deal of protection from inclement weather.
This path is about 2 kilometres long and offers a picturesque running track plus a few inclines (particularly one at Bridge Gate).
