The Livia Memorial Garden

A small beautiful garden. Quite and peaceful.

Leading up to 1998, the site on which the garden now sits, was a builder's yard and then left derelict and sterile. Livia, a young girl of 16, was killed on the adjacent pavement on the evening of 12 January 1998 by a driver who mounted the pavement as she walked to her ballet class. Another lady was also seriously injured. There were no railings or bollards to stop oncoming vehicles.

In the aftermath, as when one chews over the whys and what can be done to assuage pain, walking by the site one day, Livia's mother re-noted the derelict site, walked into Enfield Chase Station and asked to whom the ground belonged. The answer: Railtrack who was contacted and agreed to let the family develop the site into a public garden, donating £2,000 towards the project.

Subsequently, the people of Enfield, Balfour Beatty and other businesses and Council donated funds, engineering works and furniture including the life protecting railings. Paramount Gardens at Crews Hill landscaped and donated plants and the benches. It opened in 1999 by Stephen Twigg MP as a fabulous little Mediterranean haven with palm trees rustling in the breeze. Two of these perished unfortunately in 2010 in that year's harsh winter.

At it's best, in the summer, the garden brings together people, flora and fauna - birds, bees and butterflies and other earth friendly life forms have returned. It is an unexpected, unique green space on the hill, appreciated and cared for by the many who visit it.