Mountsfield Park

Mountsfield Park is a public park in Catford, near to Hither Green within the London Borough of Lewisham. The nearest railway stations are Hither Green, Catford and Catford Bridge.History of the parkThe core area of the park was originally part of Mountsfield, a substantial house and grounds, built in 1845 for the noted microlepidopterist and entomologist Henry Tibbats Stainton by his father as a wedding gift. The house and some 2.5ha of parkland lying to the south of it were bequeathed for a park by his widow in 1903, with the park opening to the public in August 1905.Over time, the park was substantially enlarged, with land bought from the School Board for London and further allotment land acquired. An area used for a short time as a football ground by Charlton Athletic FC was added to the park in 1923/4. A bombed row of houses in George Lane was added after World War II and a further tranche of land formerly used as playing fields by Catford Boys School in Brownhill Road was added in 1994.The house itself, which stood in the north-east corner of the park, was demolished in 1905, but stables and outbuildings were retained and used as park keepers’ buildings until a fire destroyed them in 1969. A former museum for Stainton’s entomology collections was a tearoom until its demolition in 1981.