To the west is a street along which can be found the popular cafe bar culture so popular with city dwellers in the working week and in their leisure time.
North and South sides are fully built up with a mixture of Victorian Period villas, modern town houses, a neighbourhood Police Station and a Mosque.
The greenspace that is Pearson Park sits in the middle of this typical urban landscape.
We moved into the Park nearly four years ago now and have marvelled at the wildlife amongst the city scape seemingly defying the pollution and other environmental factors that pose an additional challenge to those to just survive and fluorish.
Ducks from the ornamental lake can be found waddling along the circulatory road of horse drawn carriage width that was a major stipulation by the benefactor of the Park, Zachariah Pearson in the 1860's. They seem oblivious to any rules of the road but motorists just accept it and wait patiently until the way is clear.
The ducks are very enterprising in their search for food and take to the flat roofs on the block of garages behind our house pecking around on the granite chippings for any morsels.
One of the local residents has taken to spreading the contents of their green kitchen waste bin onto, hopefully, their own garage roof and this supply of treats is a regular stopping off point in the daily adventures of the ducks and drakes.
I have written before on the subject of the army of grey squirrels in the boughs of the large and ancient Horse Chestnut trees and they continue to amuse and to some degree intimidate in their fierce and defiant attitude in response to a kindly word from users of the park.
Cute and cuddly they may look, but far from it in reality.
They are thriving not because of humans but in spite of them.
A new arrival to our micro-habitat announced itself in its characteristic style although such is the relative rarity of the species in any other environment than woodlands that this went unnoticed for some weeks.
I heard a rata-tat-tat sound at first could not place it amongst the general background noise of the city ,either where it came from or what it was.
The deep roof overhang of the Police Station seemed to be the source at first but there was nothing to see. I had heard a similar noise from a malfunctioning security alarm box on one of the larger houses on the Park edge and attributed it to that. Then the direction of the knock-knock-knock changed quickly to somewhere high up in the tree canopy.
It was still so regular and mechanical in its rhythm and resonance that I could not actually relate it to any natural creature.
Our new resident is a Great Spotted Woodpecker.
I thought that this bird, my perception of it obviously influenced by the anthropomorphic animated woodpecker of the 1940's Walter Lantz studio, was more of a native of North America as I had not seen or heard one before in the UK.
About blackbird-sized and striking black-and-white, the species has a very distinctive bouncing flight and spends most of its time clinging to tree trunks and branches, often trying to hide on the side away from the observer.
Its presence is often announced by its loud call or by its distinctive spring 'drumming' display. The male has a distinctive red patch on the back of the head and young birds have a red crown. It has evolved with two foreword and two backward facing claws so as to grip round branches. It is a thriving species and the RSPB estimate 140,000 breeding pairs in this country.
I still have to spot this distinctive plumage myself although other members of my family have seen and obtained a blurry but recognisable image of what seems to be a bachelor, perhaps home-making for his mate, yet to be persuaded about the attractions of residing in the inner city albeit the beautiful Pearson Park.
The rat-a-tat-tat is a nice sound to be awoken by on a fine Spring morning and I hope to add a Great Spotted Woodpecker to my rather neglected "twitchers" log in the coming days.
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