Turner's Wood

Turner’s Wood is a 2.4-hectare private woodland and bird sanctuary in Hampstead Garden Suburb, London Borough of Barnet. It lies hidden behind houses on Wildwood Road and Ingram Avenue, once part of the Bishop of London’s medieval estate. In the 19th century it served as a woodland pleasure garden. Since 1965 a company run by local residents has managed the site for nature conservation. The wood is designated a Site of Borough Importance for Nature Conservation, Grade II. The wood is valued for its birdlife and variety of plants. Several small streams flow through it, feeding into Decoy Brook and then the River Brent. The canopy is mainly sessile oak, with pedunculate oak, hornbeam, sycamore and a few wild service-trees. Beneath them grow rowan, Midland hawthorn and hazel, and in spring the ground is covered with bluebells. Coal tits, nuthatch and green and great spotted woodpeckers live here, while tawny owls and kestrels have bred on the site. The entrance on Ingram Avenue is normally padlocked, so the wood remains private. Visitors cannot walk its paths or see the streams at close hand. The site is recognised for its quiet conservation work rather than public access. Its value lies in the habitat it provides for birds and plants within a built-up area.