The Feather WarsGordon Longwood

Valentines Park, Ilford

The real kingdom

The Feather Wars is set in a real park in Ilford, East London.

Valentines Park has a boating lake, a Victorian clock-tower shelter, a round brick dovecote, walled gardens beside an old mansion, a long ornamental pond called the Long Water, and wild woodland where foxes live. All of them appear in the story.

Illustrated map of Valentines Park with the story's places labelled, including the Clock Tower, the Gulls' Island, Silver's Dovecote, the Kitchen Garden and the Brook Tunnel
The map from the book, with the places named as the animals know them.
The Park Clock: a 24-hour clock showing which creatures are awake at each time of day in the park

Who’s awake when

The Park Clock

Different creatures own different hours of the day. Robins and sparrows sing at dawn, the gulls swoop on bread in the morning, the magpies cackle at midday, and as the light fades the foxes come out.

If you visit, see how many you can spot. Please watch quietly from a distance, and never feed or disturb the wildlife.