Broomfield Park Museum

A Memory of Southgate.

In 1952 I was 8 years old and I lived at Bush Hill Park, Enfield. During my childhood my favourite park in the area was Broomfield, the particular attraction being the museum in Broomfield House. I vividly remember the indoor beehive with the long transparent tube linking it to outside to allow the bees to come and go, a penny farthing bicycle secured to the bannisters of the staircase so that the likes of me could not ride off on it, a two feet long model Spanish galleon made from alabaster (or was it?) and contained in a glass display case to keep our sticky fingers off it and display cases filled with beautiful lace clothing from the Tudor era (or was it?).
Sadly, at some much later time, when I had grown up and moved away, I heard that Broomfield House and the museum had been very badly damaged by fire. London Borough of Enfield quickly stabilised the building with scaffolding but declared that it was beyond economic repair. I now live in Muswell Hill and frequently drive past the park on my way to visit friends in Enfield and I gaze across at the house, hoping to see that the scaffolding was gone and that the house & museum were back in operation again.