Morden Park is a 50-hectare (120-acre) public park and Site of Borough Importance for Nature Conservation, Grade 1, in the district of Morden Park in the London Borough of Merton.[1] Of this, 28 hectares (69 acres) is a Local Nature Reserve. It is owned and managed by Merton Council.[2][3] It includes Morden Park House (Registry Office).
The site includes the Morden Park mound, a Scheduled Ancient Monument,[4] and Pyl Brook runs through.
Some oaks are over 300 years old, and bird species include green and great spotted woodpeckers, coal tits and spotted flycatchers.[2] Grassland areas have wildflowers and a range of butterflies.[1]
The park remains the grounds of the eighteenth-century Morden Park House, in the initial category of listed building Grade II which is used as a registry office, specialising in weddings, having also reception event-hire space for those married in religious or other venues.[5] In 1945 the house and park were purchased by Merton and Morden Urban District Council.[6]
Access is from Epsom Road, Morden Lane and London Road.[6]
In 2008, Merton Council proposed allowing Goals Soccer Centres to build seventeen football pitches of varying types, many of them floodlit, along with a clubhouse with a licensed bar on part of the park.[7] Following public objections, Merton Council abandoned this plan the next year.[8][9]
