Park Bench

News from around the London Parks

Uplifting Changes at St John's

CHILDREN can now enjoy new play equipment at the refurbished park at St John's Churchyard off Tower Bridge Road.

Other improvements include new fencing, gates and turf and new benches and better lighting and pathways. The war memorial and its surrounding stonework have been cleaned and repaired and the whole project has been carried out with sympathy to the history and tranquillity of this park.

J&L Gibbons Landscape Architects and Bankside Open Spaces Trust worked with a steering group of residents and community representatives to agree a design for the park.

The refurbishment was supported by More London, Pool of London Partnership - on behalf of the London Development Agency, and Southwark Council.

Squirrel Watch in Russell Square

THE style-conscious out there will have observed that fur is back in fashion. This has led to a demand for pelts, which in the UK, where fur farming is banned, can only be satisfied by importing them from abroad.

It appears some unscrupulous "cowboys" recently tried to take matters into their own hands by trapping squirrels in Russell Square.

Local resident Michael Whelehan has set up a "Squirrel Watch" to protect the Square's squirrels.

Heath Clutches at Straws

ALGAE on lakes and ponds is a familiar problem for many parks and gardens owners in the summer. This year Hampstead Heath is trying out a combination of barley straw and oxygenated water to try and prevent algae developing on the ponds there, causing them to be closed as a result.

Crane Park Shot Tower Opens

THE historic 200-year-old Shot Tower at Crane Park Nature Reserve in Twickenharn has been restored and visitors able to manage the 87 stairs can now admire the view over the Reserve on the River Crane.

It was formally opened by Sir David Attenborough recently. The site is managed by the London Wildlife Trust, although in July 2004 the surrounding woodland was very unkempt and badly overgrown.

Cricketing Fun at Clissold Park

STOKE Newington Cricket Club celebrated five years of cricket coaching in LB Hackney's Clissold  Park in May with a match against the England Blind Cricket Team. There were also children's matches.

A brass band played throughout the day and entertained scores of picnickers and cricket spectators.

Not so fortunate are skateboarders who make a nuisance of themselves in the paddling pool and stage areas, because, they say, they 'have nowhere else to go'.  The Park lacks a dedicated skateboard area

Hillingdon Early Closure Threat

PARKS Patrol Officers in LB Hillingdon are threatening to close the borough's parks as early as 1.00pm if that's what it takes to deter troublemakers.

Hillingdon takes a relatively robust line with anti-social behaviour and its Parks Patrol operates seven days a week including evenings in the borough's parks, recreational spaces, playgrounds and cemeteries.

In an arrangement supported by the Metropolitan Police its parks officers are sworn in as constables and can make arrests. They carry handcuffs but those arrested must be taken to the police station and be dealt with by police.

Quaggy River Makes a Splash!

JUNE 12th saw a Family Fun Day at Sutcliffe Park, LB Lewisham, to mark the re-emergence of the River Quaggy. The once-culverted river has been returned to a 'natural' state by the Environment Agency in a scheme designed to provide flood alleviation further downstream.

The effect of the £3.8min work has been to transform Sutcliffe Park from a bare uninteresting park into a rolling environment of streams, boardwalks and viewing platforms. The arrangement provides enhanced recreational potential and wildlife habitats while providing storage for up to 85,000 M³ of floodwater - equivalent to 35 Olympic-sized swimming pools.

Blue Plaque Info by Mobile Phone

THE actor, Stephen Fry recently launched "Handheld History", a new audio guide for mobile phone users who want to find out more about the famous figures commemorated with English Heritage Blue Plaques in central London.

To use Handheld History, call 0901 8143210, listen to the welcome and then enter the birth and death date of the person written on their Blue Plaque.

For some 500 Plaques in central London, you can also receive information by text. To use this service, text hhh followed by the initial and surname of the person commemorated on the plaque to the number 82222, for example for Vivien Leigh text hhhvleigh. You receive the SMS by return. A WAP service is also available.

For costs and other details, visit the website www.handheldhistory.com.

Green Flags On The Web

THE Green Flag and Green Pennant Awards, now run under the auspices of CABE, have recently launched a new website at www.greenflagaward.org.uk

Kew Brew Tempts Tipplers

KEW Gardens have teamed up with Wandsworth brewers Young & Co. to produce their own beer, the Kew Brew.

Kew Brew is being sold at the restaurants in Kew Gardens and at the local Young's pub "The Coach and Horses". Twenty pence from every bottle sold goes back to Kew to support the organisation's science and conservation work. Ken Don, Young's Head Brewer, described the beer as " pale brown and hoppy, packed full of flavour".

Worried about Urban Foxes?

THERE are more and more urban foxes in London and they can be a considerable nuisance, trampling on flowerbeds and overturning dustbins. If you want practical advice on their deterrence contact the Fox Project on 0906 272 4411 or the National Fox Welfare Society, which will supply free information on how to deter foxes from gardens without harming them. Tel: 01933 411996.

Waterscape Renaissance

Jason Debney, Co-ordinator of the Thames Landscape Strategy launched the Teddington Gateway Masterplan at Teddington River Festival on the 6th June.

The masterplan has been developed to enhance Teddington Lock and make it a centrepiece of a 'waterspace renaissance' throughout the TLS area.

Romantic Garden Planned for V&A

A romantic design by Kim Wilkie will soon transform the V&A's courtyard garden, thanks to a £2m anonymous donation. Wilkie plans to transform the courtyard with a daytime ornamental pond which can be drained away in a matter of minutes at night, leaving an illuminated open space for glamorous parties. The courtyard will be lined with ornamental lemon trees in the summer and clipped hollies in the winter. Work is expected to start this autumn for completion by next summer. 

Work Set to Start at Peckham Rye

MAJOR restoration work is ready to get underway at Peckham Rye Park and Common in South East London, the largest open space in this part of the LB Southwark. 

Back in the fourteenth century deer were hunted on the Rye, which used to be much larger. There was even a pond which eventually became the twentieth century Open Air Swimming Pool. In 1868 the Rights of the Lord of the Manor were purchased to preserve the area for common use and save it from housing development. The Rye became so popular in the late nineteenth century that Homestall Farm next to the Rye was purchased for £51,000 and opened as Peckham Rye Park in 1894. Together the Park and Common comprise 113 acres of open space. 

This is a secret park, little known to outsiders but much appreciated by local residents. The park is thoughtfully laid out with the Sexby Rose garden, an American garden and a Japanese garden (then the height of fashion). There is an overgrown grotto rockery area and a lake fed by stream from the river Peck which circulates round the park. 

Although the park has been neglected, it has not been spoilt and the restoration promises to uncover and restore the delights of this overlooked park. The water circulatory system is badly disrupted and this will be the first job to be tackled. Work is expected to start in September. 

Park Life

People and Places in the News

Year of Celebration

Trust News from Chair BARBARA SIMMS

THE first six months of the Trust's tenth anniversary year have been both exciting and celebratory! I hope many of you have had an opportunity to participate in some of the activities that have been on offer.

The celebrations started in March when patrons, trustees and life members attended an informal reception at English Heritage. Then, at the end of April, the Trust's newly commissioned display panels, documenting the Trust's achievements over the past ten years, were exhibited at the Lindley Library. (Many thanks to Estelle Taylor and Charles Boot for masterminding the display content.)

We are grateful to the RHS for allowing us to use their wonderful new(ish) space for the display and also as a venue for this year's AGM in May. We welcomed two new trustees at the AGM, Jennifer Ullman, who has been the driving force behind the restoration of Battersea Park, and Jenifer White, a long-term Trust supporter, based in the Designed Landscapes department of English Heritage. Dr Brent Elliott, RHS librarian and archivist, also gave us a wonderful treat when he spoke about and showed us some of the many interesting and rare books (and postcards) in the library's collection.

Successful Summer Programme

Throughout the last few months John Goodier's popular walks programme has been in action. We also had a successful study day at Chiswick House and a visit to Claremont Landscape Garden, the latter a joint event with the Garden History Society.

When we come to look back. however, June's Open Gardens Squares Weekend will, I am sure, be the year's highlight.  It was (mostly) a beautifully sunny event with the most amazing activities taking place in many of the 112 participating squares- both public and private. I particularly enjoyed the jazz band in Bloomsbury Square, oriental music on the SOAS roof garden and a traditional Punch and Judy Show in Russell Square.

The Trust's last summer event is our annual garden party, this year in Mecklenburgh Square, which promises to be bigger (and better) than ever. I hope that, by the time you read this, you will have pleasant memories of drinking wine under the plane trees on a balmy evening. If the weather does let us down the elegant drawing room in the Goodenough Club should also evoke pleasant memories!

Discovery Project Goes Live

Another exciting prospect for July - the Heritage Lottery funded London Parks Discovery Project - goes live at www.parkexplorer.org.uk

Developed by Footmark Media of Rochester, this web-based resource for National Curriculum Key Stage 2 (7-11 years) will raise children's awareness of their local green heritage. It will be piloted from the autumn in four London boroughs - Enfield, Greenwich, Newham and Wandsworth. 

Deborah Jarman, the project manager, will be working with teachers and pupils in the spring and summer terms 2005. Do please look at the website and send me your comments.

We will now be seeking funding to extend this to other London boroughs from September 2006 and hope that the project will be an inspiration for other gardens trusts throughout the country.

Shoulders To The Wheel

None of the Trust's activities could happen without voluntary support - so many thanks to all those who have been involved in organising these events.

We still need volunteers, however. So please ask yourself what skills you have and what you could do to help. In particular we need a person with planning experience to comment on planning applications. We also need a new chairman for the Planning and Conservation Subgroup.

We would like to organise a Conference on East London. Could you help with this?

Or could you edit the proceedings from the Trust's conferences?

We are also grateful to all those who have made much-needed financial donations to the Trust. And finally I would like to welcome all new members who have joined since the last issue of London Landscapes.

Park Life

People and Places in the News

Royal Openings

THE Royal Family have been out and about in London's Parks this summer.

In late May the Prince of Wales visited Hampton Court to plant the last tree in a major restoration of the lime trees along the Long Water. This was the final phase in a £200,000 project funded by the Gosling Foundation. The project began in 1987 and has involved replanting 1,500 lime trees in total.

Battersea Park's £11 million makeover was unveiled by the Duke of Edinburgh on 2nd June. Prince Philip was escorted on his visit by Park Manager and new LPGT Trustee Jennifer Ullman.  He also met Trust chairman Barbara Simms. He was shown the rainbow-making fountains, Festival of Britain gardens, subtropical gardens and a widened promenade. The Prince, a keen equestrian, also took the reins of two shire horses on a dray as he led other dignitaries through the park.

On 4th June the Queen visited Kew Gardens with the Duke of Edinburgh to celebrate its selection as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Queen and Prince Philip toured some of Kew's highlights, including the giant specimens in the Palm House, before unveiling a plaque to commemorate the occasion.

Members of the Royal Family and the Spencer family were present in Hyde Park on July 6th when the Queen opened Kathryn Gustafson's water feature commemorating the late Diana, Princess of Wales. The controversial "fountain", originally budgeted at £3m, is reported to have overrun its budget by £600,000 due to several "unexpected" costs including the discovery of Roman ruins at the original location.

... and then the Rains Came

FREAK weather conditions soon followed the summer openings. A substantial tree crashed down in Battersea Park's newly replanted subtropical gardens in June only a week after the formal opening by the Duke of Edinburgh. Fortunately it happened in the early hours of the morning and no one was injured.

Then on 7th July a tropical rainstorm and high winds hit London and caused the Princess Diana feature to flood, as its winter storm grilles were not scheduled for installation until this autumn.

Another casualty of the storm was an outdoor performance of La Bohème in Trafalgar Square, which had been transformed into a park for the evening with artificial grass. 7000 people had been expected to attend and it is reported that around 2000 were able to see the production when it was hastily transferred to the ENO's London home at the Coliseum theatre.

Hampton Court Flower show also had to be evacuated due to high winds.

Summer also brings a round of outdoor concerts. Hyde Park is much in demand as the largest open air venue in London.  Park authorities are concerned about the impact of over-usage on the grass, which has little time to recover between events.

Another problem for London parks in the summer are the burnt patches left by disposable barbecues.  This year emergency legislation makes it illegal to light fires in Regents Park.

Author Joins the Party at Mile End Children's Park

PERCY the Park Keeper came to life at Mile End Children's Park in June.

The loveable TV character turned up at a party held to mark the success of the Park, one of LB Tower Hamlets' most popular children's facilities. Children from a number of local schools dressed as some of the woodland animals depicted in the Percy the Park Keeper stories created by the author and illustrator, Nick Butterworth, who was also a special guest at the occasion.

The event celebrated HSBC's £2m donation that made the park possible.  Youngsters throughout the borough were invited to come and share the fun.

The Children's Park project is just one part of the wider £26m Mile End Park project that has been seven years in development and is helping regenerate the whole Bethnal Green community.

Mile End Park has seen the latest theory in parks development expressed as a series of linked spaces for children's play, art, ecology, terraced garden, sport and youth, together with three earth-sheltered buildings, an electric go-kart track, shops and restaurants.

The park also includes a 'Green Bridge', planted with birch and pine, that stretches across the busy Mile End Road. The bridge has led to the nickname 'the park that jumped the road'.

Park Maintenance Probe in Camden

FOLLOWING complaints by residents, an investigation has been set up to review problems of park and open space maintenance in LB Camden.

The Open Spaces Scrutiny Panel, headed by Tory Councillor Andrew Marshal, will study the council's 69 parks including Waterlow Park and Russell Square.

David Atfield, chair of the tenants and leaseholders association in Red Lion Square, has been leading the protestors, saying that the money spent on initial restoration is being wasted due to the poor quality maintenance which follows.

Mr Atfield told the Camden New Journal recently: "Red Lion Square was beautifully restored 12 years ago and was managed by a company trust made up of residents, businesses and the Council .... Camden insisted it had to take it over and, when it did, it quickly deteriorated."  Mr Atfield says Red Lion Square's problems are repeated across the borough.

Cllr Marshall said "There has been a lot of funding for capital investment. We need to ensure we can adequately fund maintenance once sites have been done up."

Views can be sent to the panel by contacting Andrew Knox on 020 7278 4444.

Lipton Steps Down As CABE Chairman

SIR Stuart Lipton, the property developer and Chairman of the Stanhope Property group, who has chaired the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE) for five years, stepped down as head of the organisation in June. This was shortly before the Audit Commission issued the findings of the independent audit it commissioned of CABE earlier this year. The audit found that potential conflicts of interest existed, and Lord Mackintosh felt that it was inappropriate for an active property developer to be in charge of the architecture watchdog.

The government has named Richard Simmons as the organisation's new chief executive. Mr Simmons, who succeeds Jon Rouse, has been Director of Development and the Environment at Medway Council and is a former chief executive of Dalston City Challenge, East London.

CABE is a company wholly owned by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. It gives "design reviews" each year to around 70 projects which in its opinion will cause a significant impact on the environment.