Cassiobury Park

190-acre Victorian park along the River Gade and Grand Union Canal

Watford's largest open space and one of the best Victorian-era public parks in Hertfordshire. The estate of the Earls of Essex was opened to the public in 1909 and runs for 190 acres along the Gade and the Grand Union Canal — formal lawns and avenues at the top, mature woodland and water meadows below.

A miniature railway runs at weekends in summer, the paddling pools are popular with children, and the canal towpath gives a long flat walk towards Rickmansworth. The walled garden at the south end of the park has been restored and serves coffee and cakes from the old garden cottage.

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A story
The park is what's left of Cassiobury House, the country seat of the Earls of Essex. The house — by Hugh May, with later interiors by Grinling Gibbons — was demolished in 1927 after the family ran out of money, and the surrounding estate was sold to the borough as a public park. Two stone gateposts and the kitchen-garden walls are all that remain of the mansion.

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