Early Monday morning in Queens Wood
I wander into Queen’s Wood and the city falls away. The streets, the shops, the buses fade, into what once was part of the vast Forest of Middlesex. Henry VIII hunted these woods. Later, families gathered firewood here, lived off it, fought to keep it from being swallowed by bricks and roads. In the 19th century, locals raised their voices and saved it from development - ordinary Londoners deciding this patch of wild was worth fighting for.
A robin cuts across my path, the drum of a woodpecker rolls through the canopy, and for a moment it’s easy to imagine what it must have felt like centuries ago.
The paths rise, a bit uneven in places. Here oaks stand tall, their roots pushing through the soil and path like old bones. You breathe in, take it in.
I come here often, it is on my doorstep, well, maybe a few steps from it. But I feel this is part of my patch of land. I have to share it with a lot of other Londoners; and now outsiders, tourist and the social media generation, all in awe that this exists in this little corner of London.
The path leads me west, toward Highgate Wood, but as always, the smell of freshly brewed coffee draws me off course - a gentle tug I don’t resist. The Queen’s Wood Café sits there, half-hidden among the trees, a little wooden refuge with its tables scattered beneath the canopy.
It’s fairly quiet for a Monday morning. A few dog walkers sit nursing their mugs. Locals, mostly. A newcomer appears - phone in hand, hair bright pink, filming a slow spin through the clearing. The forest, it seems, is good for everyone’s story these days. Or maybe it’s the pull of caffeine. Haven’t asked.
I chat with the barista, who’s pulling shots with the calm of someone who’s seen it all. He grins when I mention how lively it gets on weekends. “I don’t work then,” he says, laughing. “Too busy.”
I smile, understanding. I keep away then, too. Better to come on a quiet morning like this, when the coffee, like the company, is unhurried.
This will definitely not be my last entry from Queens Wood. This is where I enjoy the seasons; the spring forest air, the shade from the summer sun, the rustle of my footsteps in the fallen autumn leaves and the quiet and crips winter days.
