Tunnel vision helps improve Wood Green footpath

Haringey Council has completed a long-awaited revamp of Penstock Path connecting Wood Green with Alexandra Park

A ribbon-cutting ceremony held last week at the official reopening of Penstock Tunnel

A major revamp of a footpath underneath the East Coast Main Line in Wood Green has been completed.

Penstock Path connects Western Road in Wood Green with Newland Road, which then leads into Alexandra Park and Alexandra Palace. But the tunnel under the railway line in particular was badly in need of an upgrade, with a Haringey Council report in 2017 concluding it was “neglected, unsafe, and in urgent need of improvement”.

In response, refurbishing the tunnel became a “key priority” for the council, although it has taken almost nine years to come to fruition.

The recent improvement project has made the route “safer, greener and more welcoming”, with upgraded lighting, resurfacing, new flood‑mitigation measures, enhanced drainage and landscaping designed to boost biodiversity and create “inviting public spaces for rest and play”.

A major new feature is CAST, a permanent artwork by Emma Smith, developed with local residents. It is a series of sculptural volumes inspired by the history of the New River.

Cast in concrete with embedded bubbles and polished stones – one glowing in the dark – the artworks appear in pink and orange tones chosen by residents, echoing the colours of oxidised copper from historic water tanks that once powered London’s only aquatic theatre.

Last week council leader Peray Ahmet joined cabinet members Ruth Gordon, Ibrahim Ali and Dana Carlin, alongside partners from Wood Green Business Improvement District, The Mall, the Greater London Authority, Friends of Alexandra Park, Alexandra Palace, The Community Hub, Haringey Cycling Campaign, The Conservation Volunteers (TCV) and construction partner Marlborough to officially open the newly improved space.

Penstock Tunnel has long played a “quiet but vital role” in connecting the area. Its story began in the late 1840s with the arrival of the Great North Eastern Railway, which reached Wood Green by 1859 and reshaped the landscape with bridges, cuttings and tunnels.

With the opening of Alexandra Park in 1863 and Alexandra Palace a decade later, the tunnel became a key pedestrian link between Wood Green and the area’s cultural and green destinations.

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