The Victorian Mayhem festival is still on til 8pm get down there! (June 22). I lived in Stamford Hill for nearly a year and had no idea this place was here. I would go to Springfield Park all the time but this place is just as good, maybe even better. There is a large grassed park area, five a side football, huge kids playground, a rose garden (bit neglected) and the Engine Museum, a restored Water Pumping Engine House, that has been turned into a community centre, with the beam engine in the process of being restored.
The Victorian Mayhem thing was mental, it was full of weird european young women dressed in Victorian/Hellish garb, doing lots of weird artistic stuff. And all around the Engine building are hidden 'gardens' created from derelict sections of the site, that in turn have become overgrown. There is a vast area dedicated to bmxing and I presume skateboarding as well, though I didn't see any kids with boards. In other words it's a great area for a private picnic with someone you really like especially if you're a kid with nowhere else to go.
I can imagine it being a bit bleak and grey in the winter months, but it is very, very quiet down by the reservoir, you forget how noisy the main road is in N15/N16. read more