194 BIRDS IN LONDON 



(excepting those distant spaces situated on the 

 borders of Epping Forest) are all near together 

 and form a large circular group, are Hackney 

 Downs, London Fields, Victoria Park with 

 Hackney Common, and Hackney Marsh with 

 South and North Mill Fields about 7 30 acres 

 in all. These grounds, as we have seen, are too 

 distant to be of much benefit to the larger part 

 of the population, and, it ma} r be added, they 

 have not the same value as breathing spaces as 

 the parks and commons in other London districts. 

 Victoria Park does not refresh a man like 

 Hampstead Heath, nor even like Hyde Park. 

 The atmosphere is not the same. You are not 

 there out of the smoke and smells and gloom 

 of East London. The atmosphere of Hackney 

 Marsh is better, but the distance is greater, and 

 the Marsh is not a place where women and 

 children can rest in the shade, since shade there 

 is none. 



To begin with the spaces nearest to the 

 boundary line of North London : we have the 

 two isolated not large spaces of Hackney Downs 

 (41 acres) and London Fields (26 acres). These 

 are green recreation grounds with few trees or 

 shrubs, where birds cannot breed and do not 



