Perivale golf course to be converted into a public park

A large swathe of land in west London that’s currently operated as a private golf course is to be opened up as a new public park. The Perivale Park Golf Course is a 9-hole course covering 21 hectares of open space built in 1900 but will soon be turned into a public space.

In a peak month, as a golf course, it can see as many as 600 people using it. However, that’s far fewer people than a popular public park of that size would expect to see on just a single summer weekend, so the golf course is an open space that’s quite restrictive in usage.

Following a consulation with local residents, Ealing Council has taken the decision to close the golf course and, after conversion works, open it as a new publicly accessible park that could ultimately form part of plans for a new regional park in the borough.

The consultation found that almost two-thirds of respondents (more than 62%) said they supported closing Perivale Park Golf Club to make it into a park, although, unsurprisingly, there was far less support for the closure from people living nearby, mainly from people opposed to the concept of a new regional park.

Equally unsurprisingly, there was more support for closing the golf course from younger people than from older people.

The golf course operator set up a petition to keep the site open, but candidly, they would have been able to attract more members if their website was a bit more appealing to visitors curious about playing golf. The fact that the larger Ealing Golf Course is about a 15-minute walk down the road probably didn’t help their argument about a lack of local golfing facilities.

Perivale Golf Course will close in June 2024.

The closure of the golf course and converting it into a park is part of a wider scheme to create ten new parks and open spaces across the borough by 2026.