Totteridge Green

Totteridge Green is a five-hectare nature reserve in Totteridge, part of the London Borough of Barnet. It is a Site of Borough Importance for Nature Conservation and registered common land. The site sits on both sides of the road called Totteridge Green and features a typical English village green. Open grassland, small patches of scrubby woodland and a pond make up its landscape. The grassland is mostly perennial rye-grass with a variety of common wild flowers. The reserve includes damp hollows that once held ponds, now supporting uncommon wild flowers such as great burnet and bog stitchwort. Laurel Farm Pond remains from the fourteen ponds shown on an 1840s map and attracts large numbers of geese and mallards. Pedunculate oak, beech and horse chestnut trees grow here. A footpath runs through the woods to Coppice Walk, with additional access from Totteridge Village and Laurel Way. Totteridge Croft Field lies between Totteridge Green and Darland’s Lake. It was once a hay meadow turned rough grassland with tall unmanaged hedges. The field supported tufted hair-grass, scattered oak and crab apple trees, and wild flowers like sneezewort and pignut. It provided habitat for birds and cover for mammals including rabbits and muntjac. Today it is publicly accessible woodland and scrub with footpaths running between Folly Brook and a track leading south from Totteridge Green.