A night walk in London: The Enchanted Woodland

As we drove towards south west London, the rain started to fall, and quickly got heavier until the wipers were working at full-speed. We questioned the sanity of going on, but having come so far and armed with a large umbrella we decided to carry on.

And what a treat! Syon Park, the grand home of the Duke of Northumberland, has set up the Enchanted Woodland for several pre-Christmas evenings. Thousands of lights decorate trees around the park, and waltzes play from hidden speakers to add to the mood of enchantment and fantasy. Apart from the low flying aircraft approaching Heathrow which is only a couple of miles from the park, once inside the park there is little to remind you that you are in London.

The lights are arranged around the park’s trees, statues and buildings, and there is something to stop and look at every few steps. Many of the light displays are constantly changing, providing an animated element to the displays. We even forgot the lashing rain for much of the hour that we spent walking along the pre-set footpath.

I’ll leave the rest of the story to the pictures I took from the walk around the park. The quality is limited by the lack of steady places to rest my camera but hopefully you’ll get the idea despite the effects of a wobbling hand.

For those who live in better climates than ours, it is probably hard to believe that right minded people who go out in this weather, worse still take their children out in it. Yet there were many families walking around the park, enjoying the lights and the displays and ignoring the foul conditions. It reminded me of that old adage “there’s no such thing as the wrong weather; there’s only the wrong attitude” or something like that.