Janet Jack at Alexandra Road Park

The park was completed in 1979. Planting areas were surround with additional barriers to help the plants become established and children used the playgrounds.

In the 1990s the park fell into disrepair as the housing co-op who were managing the site could not afford to maintain its upkeep. Play equipment was removed and when Camden Council took back the site they closed areas off as health and safety hazards.

In 2010 local residents formed a partnership with Camden Council and by 2013 had won a funding bid to regenerate the park. The appointed designers, J & L Gibbons Landscape Architects and Erect Architecture, worked with local people and Janet Jack to restore and improve the park. By 2015 the redevelopment was finished and the park reopened.

This project included renovating all five play areas taking inspiration from Janet Jack’s original designs to create new spaces with modern materials.

Janet Jack used trees with varying colours and texture as well as evergreen shrubs to provide interest all year round.

The park was integrated with other important elements of the estate. A nursery and sunken five-a-side football pitch were built near Playground One.

Looking out across Playground One and the sunken five-a-side football pitch.

Playground One had slides and timber steps built into the slope. A tree was planted in the centre of the playground providing shade.

Children enjoying Playground One soon after the park opened.

Since the restoration this has become a wild area with seating over looking the football pitch.

The amphitheatre's lawn and hedging seen c.1992.

Hedges surrounding the amphitheatre in winter, seen here c.1992.

Playground Two and Three are separated by a diagonal walkway with connecting steps and gaps in white walls. The enclosed spaces were both designed with swings and climbing frames.

Playground Two also included an unusual concrete climbing structure, on the right of the image, which echos the architecture around it.

Children playing on the climbing frame in Playground Two in 1979, the year the park opened.

Jack intended the walls in the park to support climbing plants such as ivy and have small beds on top, with grasses and other plants thriving. This element is echoed across the estate with planting boxes integrated with the walls of resident’s homes and balconies.

Janet Jack's original plans had included flowers, fruits and herbs for residents to pick and eat. Since the regeneration rosemary, wild mint and strawberries have been added to the planter around the play areas.

The new play structure is inspired by Jack's designs.

Playground Five shorty after opening. The playground now has similar wooden play structures designed for younger children with a soft surface rather than sand which can be hard to maintain.

The neglect of the park allowed trees across the site to become more established than they otherwise would have been.

Along one side of the playground Four and Five runs a woodland walk. Jack’s planting across the site was designed to encourage wildlife and this area particularly creates a natural environment which allows those walking through to briefly escape from London.

In 2016 Janet Jack passed away. Alexandra Road Park was one of her major projects and an excellent example of modernist landscaping in a high density estate. She followed its progress through challenges and changes.

‘I know she was delighted to see when the trees had matured how lovely these spaces worked. The woodland walk opening into a secluded place where people had privacy from the development; the fact it all turned out as she had hoped was very satisfying for her.’ - William Jack, Janet’s partner