Parks charity flags importance of protecting UK heritage
Victoria Tower Gardens, the Grade II listed park adjacent to the Palace of Westminster, has been shortlisted as one of the most endangered heritage sites in Europe.
With this nomination to Europe’s Seven Most Endangered [7ME] sites 2025, LPG feels the time is right for its inclusion on Historic England’s Heritage at Risk Register. A previous application from LPG was rejected.
Proposals to build on the park are being pushed through by Angela Rayner’s Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government [MHCLG], with its backers determined to deliver a commitment made eleven-years-ago by Prime Minister David Cameron to build a national Holocaust Memorial and Learning Centre.
The development would dominate the whole southern half of this small public park partly situated within the World Heritage Site of the Palace of Westminster. For more than 150 years this quiet oasis in a heavily built-up area has been loved by parliamentarians, residents, and tourists. It is one of several “protected London sightlines”, offering iconic long views between two rows of mature plane trees of the Houses of Parliament and Victoria Tower. It’s where thousands queued to see Queen Elizabeth II lying in state, and was used by Air Ambulances as a landing site to evacuate casualties from terrorist attacks on Westminster Bridge and outside Parliament. But the 1900 Act, originally put in place to safeguard the park as a green space is due to be repealed by the government, to allow construction to go ahead.
London Parks & Gardens [LPG], the Save Victoria Tower Gardens movement and The Thorney Island Society, have fought to protect the park for the last nine years from the scale of the proposed development. The nomination of Victoria Tower Gardens to the Seven Most Endangered Programme 2025 was made by Europa Nostra UK. LPG first raised concerns in a 2019 study. Our recent submission to House of Commons and Lords Select Committees measure the Memorial and Learning Centre encompassing more than 40% of the park’s recreational space.
A London Parks and Gardens spokesperson said:
“Being on the 2025 shortlist of the Seven Most Endangered Programme is indicative of the peril Victoria Tower Gardens faces. Development threatens not only the integrity and heritage of the park, but potentially the future status of the Palace of Westminster as a World Heritage site. This is, always has been, and always will be about the heritage, natural, and social value of the gardens. This is clearly a case of a noble development proposal, sadly in the wrong place as recognised by Europa Nostra, UNESCO, those who love the garden, including us campaigners, and Westminster Council who rejected the planning proposal. We hope Historic England will accept our second request for the park’s inclusion on their Heritage at Risk Register.”
The charity has already successfully challenged the UK Government’s proposals in the British courts. They upheld the 1900 Act of Parliament flagged by LPG forbidding construction in Victoria Tower Gardens. In 2023, UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee voiced serious concerns over the: “significant adverse impact [of the proposal] on the Outstanding Universal Value” to the World Heritage Site of the Palace of Westminster.
The Advisory Panel of the Seven Most Endangered Programme noted:
“The Palace of Westminster is recognised globally as a symbol of a nation’s ‘governance by the people, for the people’. A World Heritage Site, its architecture expresses democratic accountability. Victoria Tower Gardens provides its essential setting, but it’s also a place in its own right not a development site to be filled; it has value. The proposal for a Holocaust Memorial in London is understandable, but the location and scale escalate it from being an object IN a garden to being the object OF the garden, suffocating the space. The inclusion of Victoria Tower Gardens in the Seven Most Endangered Programme 2025 is a call for holistic empathy.”
A House of Lords Select Committee was formed to investigate just the private interests affected by the proposal but was not empowered to dissect the general public policy arguments. It published its report on the 22nd of January 2025. Chair of the Committee Lord Etherton said:
“This report highlights some important concerns which need to be addressed, including the need to keep Victoria Tower Gardens as accessible as possible and communicating any security implications for the project.”
A spokesperson for the Save Victoria Tower Gardens group welcomed the few recommendations made by the Select Committee, but added:
“We are very disappointed the Committee relies on mere assurances from the Promoter, namely the Government, advised by the UK Holocaust Memorial Foundation committee. We consider these assurances worthless and unenforceable, from a Promoter which has consistently shown itself to be unreliable.”
Taking the Lower Richmond Road from Putney Bridge towards Barnes you come to the adjoining common lands of Barnes and Putney Lower Commons. This is part of the extensive green corridor stretching from WWT Wetlands in the north through Barnes and Roehampton to Richmond Park and Wimbledon Common in the south.
We were drawn to this small patch of common lands because hidden away were two small Victorian burial grounds lying close together, and largely abandoned. The Richmond/Wandsworth boundary passes between them, and they are managed separately. Surrounded by woodland, tangled shrubs and open spaces, crisscrossed by paths these burial grounds are little known.
Barnes Cemetery is a wild area, the unkempt part of the Commons but enthralling and atmospheric. Gravestones are at angles or damaged, trees and shrubs invade their spaces, paths wind haphazardly round the old graveyard.
Putney Lower Common Burial Ground is the tidier one with paths gently managed, but that too has a wild area. This graveyard is lighter and sunnier. Walking round both graveyards exploring is a true pleasure.
Putney Lower Common Cemetery history
By the mid-19th century, the burial ground for Putney (now known as Putney Old Burial Ground) was overcrowded, and by 1854 there clearly was a need to build another cemetery for the parish, a common problem for parishes in London as the population was growing so quickly.
So, on the 26th August 1854 the Putney Burial Board received a request for a new cemetery from 15 local builders and business men. The request was accepted and only 3 weeks later Earl Spencer who owned much of the local commons round Putney and Wimbledon agreed to sell 3 acres of his land for £360.
By February of the following year William and Robert Avis, two of the original proposers of the new cemetery won the tender to build at a cost of £2314. The cemetery was consecrated in the August of that year. Victorian builders certainly moved fast!
Chapel in Putney Lower Common Cemetery (Photo: Colin Wing)
This cemetery became the main Putney graveyard until the end of the century when in 1891 it was officially closed when Putney Vale was opened. However, burials have taken place there since then to as recently as 1975. Nowadays this quiet corner of Putney is monitored by The Friends of Putney Lower Common Cemetery who raised money for restoration work on the chapel building inside the cemetery. This has now been converted into a private dwelling in 2017 and the entrance lodge now houses a popular café.
Barnes Cemetery history
The living of St Mary’s Barnes was in the gift of the Dean and Chapter of St Paul’s, who also owned Barnes Common so when the need for a new parish cemetery was necessary two and a half acres of the Common was assigned to the parish for £10. Like Putney the graveyard opened in 1855. By the mid-20th century, it was almost full and the site was closed in 1954.
Old Barnes Cemetery (Photo: Sally Williams)
Richmond Council took over management of the site from Barnes in 1965 and planned to convert it to a garden of rest, but this was abandoned and the cemetery became increasingly overgrown and vandalised. In 1980 it became incorporated into Barnes Common as part of the Local Nature Reserve. Today it is wild and wooded and, despite being alongside the playing fields and courts of Rocks Lane, remains hidden with a gothic atmosphere.
Through the seasons
Spring
It is a sunny morning in April and we walk round the two old burial grounds. A nuthatch loudly calls, blackcaps, chiffchaffs, great tits, blue tits and robins are all proclaiming their territories and their suitability for the females. The newly opened leaves on the trees are a vivid green to be savoured. New grass pushes up through the damp soil. Alkanet and garlic mustard line the paths in blues and creams. On the trees the horse chestnut candles and hawthorn blossom lighten up the wood. The tree canopy above us has not fully opened out yet and the sunlight can still make its way through.
Summer
Over two months have passed since we last wandered searching the tumbled and eroded gravestones. It is warm and we take more time to look at the gravestones. Victorian life is laid out in the words there – life is often brutal – how many young children are laid here? how many young wives? And now in late June, in both cemeteries, the grasses, nettles and brambles have grown unchecked, some nettles reaching over our heads. The dappled sun through the trees is warm. Butterflies – meadow brown, speckled wood and small copper- flutter round the oxeye daisies, hawkweed and hedge parsley. From the tree and shrubs blackcap, chiffchaff and robins are still heard, but not so vigorously now.
Autumn
Already the equinox is here and the sun is lower and weaker, but the heat remains. The sycamore leaves have already turned brown and crinkled. A false acacia is a startling yellow, getting ready for the later autumn colours. Inside Putney burial ground the Yews have berries on them, but the blackberries on the brambles are shrivelling up and, in a sheltered sunny spot, blue scabious attracts bees . On the open land of Barnes Common yarrows line the paths and a few butterflies, large white and meadow brown, still flutter in the sun. There are several small tit families up in the canopy, the occasional robin is heard singing their crisp, rather melancholic autumn song, and a pair of great spotted woodpeckers call out disturbed by something unseen. A magpie rustles around in the low branches, whilst a squirrel nearby campers among the dead leaves.
Winter
It is the last day of the year, and a storm is forecast for later, but for now all is calm, but grey, damp and cold. In both graveyards several fallen branches lie over old gravestones, testament to the storms of recent weeks. The paths are clear though and fallen autumn leaves lie thick along the edges. On a few decaying trees ‘turkey tail’ and ‘velvet shank’ fungi cluster along the bark. Some bulbs are already pushing through in Putney Cemetery and out on Barnes Common the gorse bushes have yellow flowers -signs of a mild if stormy winter so far. Crows, parakeets and magpies are the dominant bird sounds, whilst robins call quietly from the bushes. A great spotted woodpecker drums in the distance while another calls high above us looking for food. But the biggest surprise was the sudden sight of a tawny owl flying silently through the branches and quickly disappearing before we could say no more than “wow”!
Two notable residents
Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins (1807-1894) lies in Putney Lower Common Cemetery. He was the sculptor who made the dinosaurs in Crystal Palace – still there for us all to see.
Dinosaurs in Crystal Palace Park (Photo: Colin Wing)
He unveiled his dinosaurs in 1854, the world’s first full reconstruction of dinosaurs. They look to us a little incorrect these days, but at the time were based as accurately as possible on what scientists knew. Hawkins had been appointed assistant superintendent of the 1851 Great Exhibition in Hyde Park. So, when in the following year the great glass exhibition was to be relocated to Sydenham hill to create the Crystal Palace Hawkins was the natural choice, as a known sculptor, to take on the project of creating the antediluvian world of the dinosaurs.
Working with Sir Richard Owen, the prominent scientific figure of this time, Hawkins spent three years sculpting these life size models. But the project ran out of money and Hawkins lost out by losing his job. However, his career continued in France and America before returning to England and finally to Putney. A century of neglect followed the creation of these dinosaurs, but they are now on Historic England’s ‘Heritage at risk’ register and plans are now afoot to see how best to restore them.
Ebenezer Cobb Morley (1831-1924) lies in Barnes Old Cemetery. He is one of the fathers of the Football Association (FA) and modern football. Born in Hull he moved to Barnes in 1858 to practice as a solicitor in London. He was a keen sportsman founding the Barnes Football Club in 1862 and was captain until 1867.
Barnes played its first match against Richmond Football Club in the November of that year, but the following match against Blackheath was far less happy as Blackheath played a rugby style game with players allowed to pick up the ball and hack opponents shins. This led to Morley proposing a governing body for the sport with the power to set rules. The first meeting of the FA was held at the Freemasons Tavern in Holborn on 26 Oct 1863 when Morley was elected as its first secretary and continued in this role to 1866.
For several years the FA struggled to get clubs round the country to join but gradually gained popularity. During much of this time Morley served as President of the FA presiding over the birth of the FA Cup. He was the first man to present the FA Cup to the winners in 1872. His grave in Barnes cemetery is one of the few tended graves and can be found on the edges of the cemetery appropriately within the sounds of Fulham F.C.!
In a special edition of Research Focus marking the passing of Queen Elizabeth II in September, LPG Research Group volunteer Fran Martin reminisces about the Queen’s connection with London’s South Bank.
The queue for the Queen’s lying-in-state at Westminster Hall snaked along the aptly named Queen’s Walk, the promenade along the southern bank of the Thames which runs from Lambeth Bridge to Tower Bridge. The walk forms part of the Jubilee Walkway, created to mark the Queen’s Silver Jubilee in 1977, and runs past monuments marking her numerous jubilee celebrations: the Jubilee Gardens, created to mark the Silver Jubilee and transformed in 2012 for the Diamond Jubilee; and the Golden Jubilee Bridges either side of the Hungerford Railway Bridge. Just a few months before, I had eagerly photographed a passing Platinum Jubilee bus! The Golden Jubilee Bridges – opened by the Queen’s cousin, Princess Alexandra, in 2003 – provide a lovely walk between the south and north banks, offering some of the most stunning views of the Thames in London.
Images of Queen Elizabeth II became a familiar sight on the streets of London after her passing, as we paid our respects with signs in shop windows, floral tributes, and displays at venues across the capital. On the South Bank, memories of the Queen were everywhere.
The Southbank Centre itself – the largest arts centre in the UK and one of the nation’s top visitor attractions – is inextricably connected with the Queen. The Royal Festival Hall was opened in 1951 by her father, King George VI, as part of the Festival of Britain, which was intended as a tonic after the war years and a symbol of hope for the future. The Queen and Duke of Edinburgh attended the first concert in the Hall on 3 May 1951 and were frequent visitors in the years that followed. The Queen was a fan of jazz and her first solo engagement at the Royal Festival Hall was a jazz concert on 14 July 1973. The Queen Elizabeth Hall was built with the smaller Purcell Room and opened by the Queen in 1967, with a concert conducted by Benjamin Britten. She also opened the Hayward Gallery – a landmark of Brutalist architecture – in 1968.
Parks at the Heart of The Queen’s Lying-In-State
Green spaces such as Green Park and St James’s Park were a focal point for floral tributes following the death of the Queen, but some of London’s most famous parks became logistical hubs too for those queuing to pay their respects at Westminster Hall.
Southwark Park – the queue had its ‘entrance’ here, with wristbands distributed to those joining
Archbishop’s Park – home to staff wellbeing tents and first aid stations
Victoria Tower Gardens – the end of the queue, with zigzag lines snaking through to the Hall entrance
All along the Queen’s Walk, the inescapable sight of the London Eye looms overhead, beautifully lit up at night since its opening as part of the Millennium celebrations in 2000. The twinkling lights complement the gentle buzz of passers-by, both locals and tourists, soaking up the autumn glow. Who doesn’t feel a hint of dismay as the clocks go back and the darker evenings beckon? Yet the splendour of the South Bank at night reminds us of the beauty of the changing seasons. This area of London, which has witnessed scenes of such profound sadness just weeks ago, also shows us the comfort of history and legacy. Just as the tenacity of those waiting in the Queen’s Queue inspired us, the rich history and culture of this area of London can offer us a glimmer of comfort in the wintry nights ahead.
Chief Executive of Parks for London Tony Leach explains the impact of the Good Parks for London report on improving green space provision across the capital.
Parks for London published the first Good Parks for London (GPfL) report in 2017 to improve the quality of parks and green spaces throughout London and to promote the positive work and best practices being carried out by local authorities and land managers across the capital. Since then, GPfL has become Parks for London’s flagship publication. In its six years, the report has grown more robust in its collection and presentation of data and has become increasingly recognised by policymakers and practitioners across London.
Although numerous organisations with an interest in London’s parks and green spaces exist, they often are location or issue specific, with few taking a holistic or London-wide perspective. Furthermore, no standards for comparing Council parks services across London exist. While Keep Britain Tidy’s Green Flag Awards – a scheme in which many London boroughs participate – provides some benchmarking for green space quality, Green Flag applies to individual spaces and does not look strategically across a borough or organisation. GPfL helps fill this gap.
What is a park? For the purposes of GPfL benchmarking we use the following definition of parks: parks include all publicly accessible green spaces that are owned (or leased) and managed by a Local Authority (LA), whether in-house or out-sourced. This includes churchyards and cemeteries within Greater London but excludes: housing land; allotments; green spaces owned and managed by The Royal Parks, City of London, Lee Valley Regional Park or other landowners; and green spaces owned by the LA but managed entirely by third parties such as independent park trusts, the London Wildlife Trust, the Conservation Volunteers (TCV) and others.
How does Good Parks for London work? GPfL assesses participating London boroughs’ parks services each year, from April to March, against the ten criteria summarised in the table on this page. This enables comparison between boroughs and gives recognition to the work and progress happening across London’s parks, helping improve performance and standards, and making practices more visible and open to scrutiny.
The limited definition described above means that only 32 boroughs are included in the data, because benchmarking with other landowners would be like comparing apples with pears. To compensate for this, the report includes case studies from other landowners and managers to give them an opportunity to share good practice and raise their profile.
Part one of the report evaluates participating boroughs against the ten criteria. The results are presented through maps and a summary benchmarking table, which indicates how boroughs are performing, along with short articles under each criterion from boroughs that are performing well or showing innovative work in that area.
Fiona Garnett Crumley’s Scented Garden – Wandsworth Park – illustrates community involvement (Photo: Friends of Wandsworth Park)
Part two of the report focuses on the exemplary work done in London’s parks, focusing on a different theme each year: 2018 – Improving London’s parks for all 2019 – Parks and health 2020 – Parks and the pandemic 2021 – Parks and climate change 2022 – Keeping park clean
Part three of the report was added in 2022 to include a broader range of case studies from land managers and organisations with an interest in managing London’s parks.
Since GPfL’s inception, we have refined the information needed to evidence the ten criteria. Council Officers have become more familiar with the data they need to submit and are increasingly adept at collecting and reporting this information. As such, the robustness of GPfL’s evidence base continues to improve. Since 2021 we have provided borough feedback reports, which highlight key strengths and recommendations for improvement. Changes in legislation, such as the Government’s Environmental Improvement Plan, mean that criteria will continue to be modified from time to time.
Thrive Main Garden, Battersea Park – illustrates health and wellbeing (Photo: Colin Wing)
What is the impact of the report? Parks for London wanted to assess whether GPfL is meeting its objectives, namely: improving the overall quality of green spaces across London; strengthening Council parks services; protecting and increasing green space budgets; and raising awareness among policymakers and decision makers of the importance of well-managed and well-resourced parks. Parks for London also wanted to identify opportunities to improve the report’s usefulness for Heads of Service and other Council staff, as well as policymakers and Portfolio Holders, as this can lead to GPfL having greater impact.
As a result, in 2020 Parks for London commissioned Dr Meredith Whitten to evaluate the impact of the GPfL report on policy and practice, and boroughs’ approach to green space delivery and management. Data was collected via a survey across all boroughs, followed by in-depth interviews in selected boroughs. Respondents included Heads of Service, Portfolio Holders and other Council officers with a responsibility related to green space.
The research found that 80% of respondents have a positive impression of GPfL, and that GPfL has had an impact on improving green space quality and developing stronger parks services within local authorities. This impact tends to be subtle, with the report incentivising good practice rather than overtly necessitating change. By laying out broad criteria for high-quality parks and identifying the factors that constitute a well-run parks service, GPfL nudges boroughs to make changes and reinforces good practices. The report also focuses attention on activities beyond the frontline, but which are fundamental to providing quality green space and strong, stable Council parks services.
Dr Whitten’s research identified sever areas where changes to GPfL could potentially lead to greater impact, such as how the annual report’s results are communicated to various audiences, including policymakers and budget-setters. Benchmarking across London’s boroughs has limitations, regardless of the issue being benchmarked, as the city’s 33 local governments have distinctive cultures, priorities and politics. Green space across the boroughs differs as well, including in area, average size and use. Local authorities also have different organisational structures, which affect where a parks service sits.
Collectively, however, green spaces across the boroughs contribute to the city’s overall greenness, the health and wellbeing of Londoners, the capital’s ability to respond to and adapt to climate change, and London’s role as a global leader in urban green space issues, such as becoming the world’s first National Park City. The GPfL report provides a well-received means for continuing to improve green space standards across the capital.
PUBLIC SATISFACTION Evaluates borough-wide surveys, taking into account follow-up action plans based on residents’ feedback.
AWARDS FOR QUALITY Recognises attainment of Green Flag Awards, participation in other award schemes like London in Bloom, and use of the Parks for London Green Space Quality Manual.
COLLABORATION Assesses support for organisations such as Parks for London and partnerships with voluntary sector organisations and local environmental groups. Rewards collaborative land management and service provision arrangements.
EVENTS Appraises events (particularly community events) held in green spaces, income returned to the park service, and quality of event management, sustainability and accessibility.
HEALTH, FITNESS & WELLBEING Assesses use of parks for social prescription referrals, provision of outdoor gyms and exercise programmes, and availability of community food growing areas, noting initiatives to encourage participation, access and inclusion.
SUPPORTING NATURE Evaluates biodiversity action plans, biodiversity strategies or local nature recovery plans, as well as biodiversity outreach schemes.
COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT Notes incidence of Community Green Flag Awards, involvement with and support for Friends and Residents groups, and volunteer engagement.
SKILLS DEVELOPMENT Evaluates provision of training, development and learning opportunities, equality, diversity and inclusion policies, and overall number of apprentices and trainees.
SUSTAINABILITY Assesses fleet and equipment sustainability and efficiency, recycling of parks litter and green waste, weed management and climate resilience plans.
STRATEGIC PLANNING Notes recent completion of a parks service scrutiny review, adoption of a green infratruture space strategy with associated investment plan, and use of a costed asset management plan.
FIND OUT MORE More about Parks for London: parksforlondon.org.uk/about/parks-for-Iondon Good Parks for London reports: parksforlondon.org.uk/resource/good-parks-for-Iondon
Pat Gross, Chair of the Friends of Wandsworth Park, recalls the creation of Fiona’s Scented Garden, a much-loved community green space
About eight years ago, the Friends of Wandsworth Park started querying a locked-off but coveted area of riverside park land. Why could no one have access? Why did it sit there empty, day after day?
When the new development that abutted the space was built in the 1980s, this pocket of land was retained by the Council with a hope to extend the riverside walk. It was land designated as part of the park.
Our queries about the terrace continued to fall on deaf ears. As we later discovered, it had allegedly been closed following claims of anti-social behaviour on the site by the neighbours, but no one from the Council was prepared to state that outright What didn’t make sense was the fact that the anti-social behaviour continued in the unlocked side of the park, as well.
Then, after more than three years of being locked, a planning application was submitted by the neighbours for “change of use”. The neighbours wanted to obtain a very long lease of the land and extend their gardens to the river.
Luckily a very vocal and angry community took up the fight, alongside the Friends of Wandsworth Park. The Friends investigated the available options, and we immediately applied for Asset of Community Value (ACV) status and the right to manage the space, as we had been requesting for years. We were now well-aware that the Council had long been in communication with the neighbours, almost agreeing to grant the long lease without seeking the proper permissions; this evidence only strengthened our case.
We needed 25 signatures from the community to back our application. The request was sent to our members and the community, and within minutes we received over 50 signatures. As a result, we were granted the ACV status; this was significant in the planning application process as it prevented the Council from simply granting the “change of use” status, as it was now restricted. The Friends were also given a greater say in the site’s future.
The planning application was denied – a huge moment of relief for the Friends – and we commenced negotiations with the Council for how we would manage the site. However, on the day before their deadline, the neighbours challenged the decision and chose to appeal to the Planning Inspectorate. The Friends and the community were furious; we now approached Wandsworth Planning and insisted they join forces with us to fight the plan together. Our entire objection process had to be repeated, but this time the ACV status put us in a strong position. With the stellar support of the community, and in collaboration with the Council, we submitted our respective objections.
(Photo: Friends of Wandsworth Park)
The few months’ wait for the decision was a nail-biting time. We knew that if we lost this appeal, there would be no other place to go; the government’s decision was final. At last the decision came, and their application was again denied.
The few months’ wait for the decision was a nail-biting time. We knew that if we lost this appeal, there would be no other place to go; the government’s decision was final. At last the decision came, and their application was again denied.
“This was a very exciting and celebratory time, and our official opening was an extraordinary opportunity to share it with the community.”
After nearly a year of seriously hard work, the Friends were granted the right to manage the space. Fiona Garnett Crumley, a member of our committee and a very well-known and respected horticulturist, suggested it be turned into a scented garden. With the relevant approval and support she commences the implementation of her plans, and with the help of many volunteers we had the space cleared, improved and replanted.
This was a very exciting and celebratory time, and our official opening was an extraordinary opportunity to share it with the community. The space has proved to be the most popular area of the park.
Unfortunately, a few years later, Fiona lost her battle with cancer, and the Friends were devastated. We wanted to show our extraordinary gratitude for her expertise and commitment to Wandsworth Park, so – with full Council backing – we have renamed the space Fiona’s Scented Garden. It’s a magical area, far from noise, sports and dogs, and is used every day by a huge mix of people, old and young alike. We continue to garden and care for the space. It is opened and closed daily by volunteers, and we have even installed a telescope!
If you’re ever in the area, please do make the time to stop by. You will be transported to an area where you can truly relax, appreciate the planting, engage in some mindfulness as you watch the Thames tides flow past before your eyes, and enjoy the local wildlife entertaining you.
LPG volunteer Candy Blackham, whose book Green Lewisham was published in July 2022, gives a taste of the history and significance both personal and societal – of the green spaces on her doorstep.
When COVID-19 arrived in the spring of 2020, I felt imprisoned. The air was heavy with fear and my spirits sank ever lower, until the day I realised that my prison door had always stood open. Despite restrictions on socialising, I could still walk in the parks. I ventured out cautiously, my health improved, and my spirits rose.
I began to appreciate the complex relationships in my surroundings, and to wonder about lessons for urban living in Lewisham and elsewhere. I found ongoing patterns of concern for others, ongoing needs in our society, and a deep appreciation of nature and natural open spaces and the benefits they bring to people. I was surprised at how this understanding had been applied to urban developments in the past, and how little knowledge is new.
I also gained hours of enjoyment and peace at a very difficult time; pain from a lower back injury is alleviated by walking, and I am curious about new places and new ideas. I wanted to share that enjoyment – so, I decided to write a book. I consulted the London Parks & Gardens Inventory and started amassing a reference library. Where would we have been without obliging delivery people and postmen? Lewisham was in the Kent countryside less than two centuries ago. London’s expansion, particularly from the mid-19th century onwards, was driven by an increasing population and their housing needs, and a number of factors conspired against areas such as Lewisham: changes due to industrialisation, the creation of new roads and new railway networks, changing political concerns, changes in land ownership, and new social patterns and social needs, particularly after the First World War.
Downham Woodland Walk (Candy Blackham)
So why are there any green spaces left in Lewisham? Some philanthropic landowners sold land below market value or donated land. Others lobbied for green spaces to be preserved from housing developments. Today, individuals still make a difference: local Lewisham residents convert derelict land into community gardens; there are thirty-six allotments, all with long waiting lists; beekeepers abound. The Quaggy Waterways Action Group have changed the management of the River Quaggy through its urban environment, enhancing parks and benefiting wildlife. Caring for parks and nature reserves is an expensive and time-consuming undertaking. Lewisham Council and management company Glendale do a tremendous job, greatly helped by park Friends groups. Perhaps this relationship between professional and amateur gardeners has the potential for development, with increased opportunities for practical learning and training in horticulture? The restrictions imposed during the pandemic in 2020 and 2021 reminded people of the importance of green spaces, particularly for those living in urban areas; volunteering for community gardens, parks and nature reserves increased and parks were well used. People felt a need to be closer to living plants, birds and the wildlife in the city, and wanted to eat food they had grown.
This trend takes us back 100 years, to an earlier time of positive connection between population growth and green space preservation. Development after the First World War often came in the form of new housing estates built on farmland. The Addison Act of 1919 had addressed the appalling living conditions in inner London, and London County Council, together with local councils, took inspiration for their new developments from Ebenezer Howard’s Garden City concept of 1898. This proposed tree-lined roads, recreation grounds, communal green spaces, and other community facilities in the new estates. Contemporary housing developers have been less generous than their predecessors, creating ‘pocket parks’ or green ‘architecture’ rather than offering the recreation grounds or public parks of the past. Is this good enough?
Downham Fields (Candy Blackham)
Surely the lesson of the past is that we live in a community, and it is for us individually and as a community to ensure our green spaces continue green and go on enhancing our living conditions. In the words of John Claudius Loudon in 1829: “It is much to be regretted, we think, that in the numerous enclosure acts which have been passed during the last fifty years, provision was not made for a public green, playground, or garden, for every village in the parishes in which such enclosures took place.”
Natural spaces are too easily set aside in favour of profit; if only planners would pay heed to those who watched with sadness as their countryside disappeared under London’s urban growth.
Rosanna Cavallo, now a London Parks and Gardens research volunteer after retiring from her gardening business, finds more than meets the eye in the green spaces of New Cross.
Lewisham had been anticipated as 2022’s London Borough of Culture for some time, so it has been several years since the members of the Research Group allotted sites between us to study. I knew the area less well than some of my colleagues, and so was left with three sites in New Cross with which I was not familiar.
On an August day with a blue sky and sparkling sunshine, I embarked on my first site visit to Hatcham Gardens. I was immediately hooked. Nothing – but nothing! – can draw me in quicker than an unusual plant; in this case the Albizia julibrissin f. rosea or pink silk tree, which was in full and glorious bloom. I had never seen it before and loved its rose-pink paintbrush flowers and mid-green leaflets.
The name Hatcham (now New Cross) is recorded as Hacheham in the Domesday Book (1086), and New Cross Gate is named after the New Cross tollgate (1718). Despite Hatcham’s historical credentials, the name has died out except in Hatcham Park Road and a few institutions; Hatcham Gardens, however, is a modern feature. Regrettably, in a heavily built-up area, the greater part of this rare open space is boarded up and scheduled for redevelopment.
Hatcham Gardens (Photo: Rosanna Cavallo)
Historically this site was influenced by George England, a robust character who arrived from Newcastle in 1839 and rented a factory – the Hatcham Iron Works – between Pomeroy and Kender streets. England built around 250 railway locomotives, took out two patents for machinery designs and made castings for the Crystal Palace. His success was such that he rapidly employed over 40 employees and built a substantial family home, Hatcham Lodge – now 56 Kender Street. He retired in 1869, to be succeeded by his son-in-law Robert Fairlie, who had eloped with England’s daughter when she was only 17; records show that England took Fairlie to court for falsely claiming parental consent, but clearly the family rift was mended by the time of England’s retirement!
My second site was Bridgehouse Meadows, which GoParks London describes as ‘a sizeable park contain(ing) extensive meadows, in an area of New Cross that is deficient in accessible wildlife sites’. On my visit, again on a sunny August day, I saw Bridgehouse Meadows at its best. It had clearly been sympathetically landscaped, with a good nod to its name showing in the abundance of wild flowers sown.
The main path is long and snaking, skirting a railway line, with open spaces leading off from it; the result is an oddly-shaped park. What is undeniably in its favour, however, are the hills adding extra interest – a legacy, I presume, of banking from its previous conception as a greyhound and speedway stadium. It pleased me enormously to see again how New Cross’s hilly green spaces at first mask and then suddenly reveal some quite imposing skylines of the city of London.
Bridgehouse Meadows (Photo: Rosanna Cavallo)
Unfortunately, on this day the separate Nature Reserve was locked and inaccessible, but I liked the park and found it to be well used. There really are so few green spaces in the New Cross area, and this ‘lung’ was a much-appreciated break from never-ending residential buildings.
My last site was Fordham Park, which, on the Sunday of my visit, made a great impact on me with its dominant feeling of spaciousness. Having now built up a stronger acquaintance with the area, I recognise that any feeling of wide-open space here is at a premium. Named after Charles Frank Fordham, a gardener and the last Mayor of Deptford, the park opened to the public in 1975 following clearance of tightly-packed urban streets in the 1970s. The eye-catching Moonshot Centre, with its triangular glass entrance picked out in bright blue, takes pride of place at one end of the park; it acts a base for various African and Caribbean communities in the area, and offers numerous activities.
Fordham Park (Photo: Rosanna Cavallo)
Fordham Park is very green, filled with trees and extremely well used. People patronise parks to a greater degree if the space satisfies the needs of varied sections of the community, and this park seems to do this very successfully. I saw many joggers, dog walkers and families; the atmosphere was happy and pleasant, and I enjoyed my couple of hours there. I would be less than honest if I did not mention the problem of anti-social behaviour, but I saw nothing myself except for a friendly and delightful public space, with the visual treat in the background of a great panorama of the city of London.
In conclusion, I may have originally thought I had drawn the short straw with the location of my research sites. How wrong I was! Researching past the obvious unfolds the interest – all human life is there. It is surprising to think that as recently as 150 years ago New Cross was forest; I am very happy to think that research to update and add new green spaces to the London Parks and Gardens Inventory may help protect what remains of them for the future.
Roger Jones (Friends of West Ham Park) and Dave Morris (London Friends of Green Spaces Network) illustrate the transformative impact on London’s parks of the volunteer Friends who champion them.
Dr Fothergill’s garden in West Ham Park (Friends of West Ham Park)
Throughout London, our much loved and greatly valued green spaces need people to help promote, animate, enhance and protect them. In the past 20 years a vibrant ‘Friends’ movement of parks users has mushroomed, and is still expanding: there are now about 700 independent local groups in the capital, and around 7,000 across the UK.
Whilst every site, and indeed every group, is unique and has its own distinct character, the activities that Friends carry out tend to be similar. These may include: running volunteer sessions including litter picking and helping with some planting and maintenance; organising community activities and events of all kinds; generating publicity, spreading news and building membership through notice-boards, literature and social media; liaising with staff and managers regarding maintenance and repairs: linking up with local stakeholders such as sports teams, adjacent schools, a site café, nearby residents associations, and so on; discussing, proposing and sometimes fundraising for projects to improve a site; and helping develop a vision for its future.
The impact of an active Friends group can be transformative, as can be seen in the case of West Ham Park in Newham. The park is owned and managed by the City of London Corporation (CoL) following purchase of the land in 1874 from the Gurney family, who still have four seats on the management committee. It covers 77 acres (31 hectares). The Green Flag inspection in 2006 noted that there was no Friends group, and CoL called a public meeting to establish the Friends of West Ham Park; a member of the park management team attends Friends meetings, and the group works closely with the management team, thereby maximising its impact.
Newham has the least green space per capita in London; the Friends aim to encourage the local community to make the most of this precious resource in this densely populated, deprived borough, and to raise awareness of nature. The group holds public events such as guided birdwatching, bat-watching and stargazing, runs a community vegetable garden, and leads regular health walks. The annual ‘Biggest Leaf Pile’ event is enormously popular – especially the part when all the children (and some adults) jump in the pile. This kind of free play is not usually available to children living in high density housing; these events could not take place without volunteer planning and delivery.
Moreover, the park includes an historic seven-acre garden which was owned by Dr John Fothergill, a Quaker physician and plant collector, in the 18th Century. The garden was regarded by Sir Joseph Banks as “second only to Kew”. Dr Fothergill sponsored exploration, including the journeys of Captain Cook, in return for plant specimens for his collection; he had a large area of glasshouses for plant from warmer climes, and was one of the first in England to successfully grow large tea bush (Camellia sinensis). He employed the best artists of the day to record and illustrate his collection, including Ann Lee and George Ehret.
The Friends wanted to raise awareness of this unique history and to highlight the park’s beautiful ornamental garden, and so two temporary exhibitions were held in 2018 and 2019, to showcase historical information and to introduce the history of botanical illustration in relation to the works commissioned by Dr Fothergill. These illustrations, incidentally, were sold, after his death, to Catherine the Great of Russia, and are not currently on display – the Friends have a long term aim to trace them, somewhere in the archives of the Kornarov Institute in St Petersburg.
The temporary exhibitions received a great deal of interest, as a result of which the group installed a permanent exhibition in the historic rose garden, featuring reproductions of work by artists known to have worked for Dr Fothergill. The Friends obtained grants and did all the research for the exhibition, including obtaining permissions to use the historic images and making contact with the Kornarov; luckily the group boasts a Russian speaker, as well as a very knowledgeable researcher.
The partnership between the Friends group and the park management staff, including park keepers and gardeners, has made this addition to the garden possible. It is being enjoyed by many visitors, and is already being used by local schools to tie in with subjects on the National Curriculum.
Of course the size and scope of many sites, and consequently of their Friends groups, are on a much smaller scale ~ but all the groups contribute to public engagement, involvement and empowerment. Drawn from the local population, and specifically from park users, Friends groups give the public a real say about the present and future of our vital green oases in the urban fabric. Of course, those involved also have fun together and help foster some much-needed community spirit.
Friends groups increasingly share good practice and work together through their own local Forums in many boroughs, and throughout London via the London Friends of Green Spaces Network (LFGN). The LFGN itself works closely with the London Gardens Trust and with other green space bodies, including the new Go Parks London map, and campaign to promote all of London’s public green spaces.
Does your local space need extra care and attention? If it does, why not join an existing Friends group or set one up if there isn’t one yet. Every space needs lots of Friends!
Ellen Salter and Julia Haggstrom, Sustainability Consultants at Arup, describe how the Wild West End partnership is setting new standards for appropriate development in city green space.
Biodiversity is reaching a crisis point. According to analysis by the RSPB, the UK has failed to reach 17 out of the 20 UN biodiversity targets agreed ten years ago, in what has been described as a ‘lost decade for nature’. The UK has only half of its natural biodiversity left; compared to other countries in the EU, only Ireland and Malta come out worse. The UK is in the bottom 10% of all countries globally in terms of how much historic biodiversity still survives, and urban development has the potential to further obstruct the natural environment through the fragmentation of habitats and the displacement of species. To stop and reverse biodiversity loss, ambitious action must be taken to deliver appropriate development to our new and existing urban spaces through a clear partnership approach.
An introduction to Wild West End
In 2016, Wild West End was established out of a desire to protect, promote, and enhance biodiversity, as a partnership between central London’s largest property owners: the Church Commissioners for England, the Crown Estate, Great Portland Estates, Grosvenor Britain & Ireland, the Portman Estate, the Howard de Walden Estate and Shaftesbury. The partnership is also supported by eight Business Improvement Districts, two Strategic Partners (the Greater London Authority and the London Wildlife Trust) and a Technical Partner (Arup). Together we are introducing measures to encourage birds, bees, and bats back into the heart of London – building greater connections with nature for residents, visitors, and workers to enjoy.
Following the project’s launch, baseline surveys were immediately undertaken across the area to establish the extent, condition, and value of green spaces; bird and bat surveys were also conducted to record the types and numbers of each species present. Since then, we have worked strategically with monitoring, target setting, specification guidance, engagement events, sharing of good practices and installations of green features to support our vision (www. wildwestend.london/vision). In short, Wild West End aims to set the ‘green print’ for appropriate development in our cities’ parks and green spaces.
Beyond simply increasing the total area of green spaces, Wild West End seeks to increase their multi-functional value. Newly created green spaces must target, as a minimum, at least two ‘beneficial functions’ in line with the Wild West End Value Matrix. These functions fall under five broad categories – biodiversity, climate, microclimate, well-being and social – and are periodically reviewed to ensure leading best practice, in line with national, regional and local legislation and guidance. Through carefully considered and integrated management, new and existing green infrastructure can provide London with enhanced climate, health and social benefits.
Planters and seating at George’s Pocket Park in the Baker Street Quarter(copyright: ARUP)
Protecting and enhancing biodiversity
Within the London Environment Strategy, the Mayor has taken a range of actions to help the environment towards a ‘path for a better future’; Wild West End builds on plans such as this to deliver appropriate development within green spaces, according to the Value Matrix. Projects must give careful consideration to the quantity and type of habitat provision for target species, as well including features such as bat boxes, bird boxes, and invertebrate features; habitat provision is supervised by a relevant specialist to optimise opportunities and minimise costs. Every two years, habitat surveys are repeated and compared against the 2016 baseline, to highlight how new ecology features have changed the condition of green space and its use by target species. Of course, there is no one-size-fits-all approach; what constitutes appropriate development is highly dependent on factors bespoke to the location.
For example, the Portman Estate sought to improve the biodiversity value of its four garden squares – Portman Square, Bryanston Square, Manchester Square and Montagu Square. In consultation with their respective garden committees, they implemented changes including: providing extensive leaf litter areas, log piles, and bug hotels, as ideal homes for invertebrates (in turn supporting birds and mammals); and installing bird and bat boxes in potential nesting and roosting trees throughout the gardens. Monitoring has already shown evidence of birds using the squares for nesting, particularly in Montagu Square, and then utilising the other squares as feeding grounds.
The appropriate development of our parks and green spaces cannot be considered in isolation; to this end, the Partnership is seeking to establish a green corridor – stepping stones between existing areas of surrounding parkland through a combination of green roofs, green walls, planters, street trees and other green features. Through our strategic partnerships with the Greater London Authority and London Wildlife Trust, we share present publicly accessible green space data to support strategic decision-making and contribute towards ecological connectivity in the West End.
Window planters improve Mayfair’s environment for both people and wildlife(copyright: ARUP)
Creating a better place to live, work and visit
The importance of access to urban green spaces has never been more apparent than during the past year. There is increasing evidence linking access to green space with socio-economic factors, including better social cohesion, lower stress, and higher levels of satisfaction and wellbeing. Appropriate development should therefore extend beyond biodiversity benefits to consider human health and wellbeing for all who come to the area.
Applying these principles, Grosvenor Britain & Ireland has trialled a number of features to provide both environmental and social benefits. In 2019, they installed the world’s first green lamp posts in Ebury Street, Belgravia, with the aim of reducing air pollution, improving urban biodiversity, increasing evapotranspiration cooling and reducing noise. Over 3,000 new plants have also been installed to frame four of the West End’s retail streets – Mount Street, North Audley Street, Duke Street and South Molton Street – in a new initiative to improve the environment in Mayfair for retailers, office occupiers and visitors.
Amelia Bright, Executive Director of the London Estate Grosvenor Britain & Ireland, commented: “The new planting softens the West End’s harder edges while celebrating its incredible architecture and improving the environment for all. We will continue to invest in innovative initiatives like this.”
Working with the Portman Estate and Derwent London, the Baker Street Quarter Partnership also seeks to drive social engagement and promote wellbeing within existing development. With space at a premium, the careful design of George’s Pocket Park was key; our Wild West End Partner Handbook informed decision-making to create space for people to sit, enjoy, and socially engage. The decking space – created from reclaimed scaffolding boards – has seating built in; there are also regular pop-up stalls and temporary seating to encourage dwell time for events. Two years on, the seating and planters provide outdoor space for local residents, employees, and visitors to enjoy.
These are straightforward approaches to promote engagement with nature within existing development, which can often be difficult to realise in urban environments. When designed well, urban spaces can be sites of tranquillity, helping people to combat the stresses of daily life. New and existing development should therefore ensure consistent and regular exposure to nature and access to green spaces for all.
Partnership, knowledge, and engagement
Following the installation of the Reflection Garden at 25 Porchester Place on the Hyde Park Estate (Church Commissioners for England), residents were invited to provide feedback on the value of the garden for wellbeing and social engagement. This exemplifies Wild West End’s commitment to inspiring others and facilitating a culture of knowledge-sharing. Our technical understanding of appropriate development can be enhanced through academic endeavour, and Wild West End actively engages with universities, collaborators, academic institutes and professional bodies to drive best practice implementation measures.
In 2020, a student at the University of Nottingham worked with Shaftesbury and the Howard de Walden Estate to understand how urban planting may support the establishment of green corridors, and provide pollinator species with the necessary resources to move freely in the urban environment. The research highlighted the importance of planting variety, rather than patch size, for pollinator visitation; the findings were disseminated to the Partnership and made available via the Wild West End website to share lessons learned for future development.
The Reflection Garden at 25 Porchester Place(copyright: ARUP)
The future of appropriate green space development
A step change is needed in how development approaches its relationship with the natural environment. Designing and enhancing our urban spaces requires the adoption of key principles to support an ecologically and socially restorative recovery: multi-functional biodiversity, health and wellbeing benefits for all; a bespoke approach in line with context specific factors such as location and ecological connectivity to surrounding green spaces; engagement with key stakeholders to facilitate knowledge-sharing and promote long-term stewardship; and academic engagement to further technical understanding.
To find out more and get involved with the Wild West End project visit www.wildwestend.london
How skateboarders are transforming open spaces in London and beyond
Chris Lawton, Community Development Officer at Skateboard GB and Visiting Research Fellow at Nottingham Trent University, describes how the grass-roots skateboard community’s commitment to redeveloping skate spaces could turn London greener, not greyer.
Skate event at King Edward Park in Nottingham, part of the Green Hustle sustainability festival which aims to raise awareness of community groups working within the city’s green spaces(copyright SimonBernacki)
In nine years as a public policy researcher and a further nine as an economics lecturer – all the while being an active skateboarder – I’ve worked on numerous social, economic and environmental ‘problems’. Both policy and academic research tend to focus on defining and re-defining these problems, whilst being less curious about how communities and other actors attempt to address them.
Skateboarders can be artists, social entrepreneurs, skilled tradespeople, videographers and photographers, social researchers, community organisers and custodians of urban spaces – as well as sportspeople of sorts. A recent large-scale study by the Pullias Centre at the University of Southern California (2020) found that skateboarders felt motivated to participate by being with friends, maintaining their mental health and – importantly – being connected to a safe physical space (a skatepark or skate spot) from which they drew much of their identity.
This is epitomised by the record-breaking success of the Long Live Southbank campaign, which mustered the largest number of objections ever lodged against a planning application and helped prevent the redevelopment of the skate spot beneath the Southbank Centre. Deep identification with a physical space can drive young people to successfully take on well-resourced institutions with far-reaching positive impacts for public spaces in London and elsewhere. Skateboarding has the potential to transform urban spaces.
Alongside community organising in my hometown of Nottingham, where I co-founded the social enterprise Skate Nottingham, I’ve recently left academia to take up a new role as Community Development Officer at Skateboard GB, the National Governing Body. This has made me familiar with several projects in which skateboarders, working with their local communities, have transformed urban spaces from neglected, sometimes dangerous sites to valued community assets, often with significant elements of urban greening, including tree planting and public allotments.
The Hackney Bumps project, which Skateboard GB has supported in partnership with mortgage lender Habito, is an incredible story of grassroots hard work and perseverance, much of which happened during the first national lockdown. Hackney Bumps is a 1980s-era concrete facility in Daubeney Fields near Hackney Marshes and the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. It’s a mellow, undulating moonscape which complements the surrounding green space; the lack of the highly specialised forms that typify more modern skateparks fits nicely with the principle of ‘adventure play’ favoured by Hackney Council, enabling users to interact with the space as they wish, on bikes, skates, scooters, skateboards or on foot.
Polishing the Hackney Bumps (copyright Hackney Bumps)
Through the 1990s, the space fell into disrepair – the riding surface became rough, cracked and barely usable, often littered with shopping trolleys and burned-out motorbikes. For the next two decades Hackney Bumps remained underused and largely forgotten. Local volunteers began working towards regenerating the site in early 2019 and became aware of an innovative Scandinavian approach to ‘polishing’ concrete skateparks, suggested by Daryl Nobbs at Norwegian skatepark company Betongpark. Funding talks for the project were progressing well until early 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic caused the funding body and Hackney Council to put all talks and possible funding on hold indefinitely.
Undeterred, local volunteers Nick Tombs and Greg King decided to do it themselves, painstakingly hand-polishing the site a few square feet a day every day, as part of their permitted daily exercise. This incredible effort became a rallying point for other users, and a vibrant community sprang up around the space in summer 2020 as the country began to unlock at the end of the first coronavirus wave.
Now the space is visibly well-maintained and well-used, including by a much larger proportion of women and girls, children and families than is usually found in skateparks. A successful crowdfunder and a self-made film, alongside continued support and expert advice from Betongpark, has made the project increasingly ambitious; the periphery of the skatepark has been updated with more modern obstacles, built by the skaters to a professional standard, whilst maintaining the abstract, aesthetically pleasing integrity of the main space. The Hackney Bumps community group are now working with local charity Hackney Quest to provide free beginners’ skate sessions for local children, alongside other activities such as mural painting with local graffiti artists.
Before Hackney Bumps, bringing historic skateparks back to a level of contemporary usability has been prohibitively costly and difficult, leading to a Local Government preference to tear down and start again. The Hackney Bumps community has provided a blueprint for small-scale, low cost restorations that are sensitive to heritage, have a relatively low environmental impact, and enhance the diversity and inclusivity of the user community by engaging them in the build process. A wave of similar projects is beginning to transform other such spaces from the 1970s and 80s, including the concrete skatepark at Romford, which gained Grade II listed status in 2014 – the first skatepark in the UK to be listed by Historic England.
The potential impact on public spaces is clear, but can essential green space benefit from this sense of ownership and responsibility for community land? More than 100 miles up the Ml, Bournbrook DIY, in Selly Oak, Birmingham, has blurred the lines between self-built community skatepark and urban garden. Bournbrook Recreation Ground is one of the UK’s oldest legal graffiti spots, but had otherwise been in decline for decades; its rectangular concrete play area and basketball court were in a state of significant disrepair, leading to a critical lack of outdoor amenities for nearby residents. Local skater Shaun Boyle – like Nick and Greg in Hackney – felt driven to make a difference during the first lockdown. He started clearing the bushes and waste and built a small skateable ledge; he was soon joined by volunteers from a diverse user and resident community, and the project grew. The whole area was cleared, verges re-dug and flowers and small trees planted.
Visiting Bournbrook today, it’s hard to imagine that just over a year ago the site was filled with rubble, rat-infested piles of waste, thorny bushes and broken glass. Alongside a professional-standard skate space, which has just successfully completed a ROSPA inspection, there’s a well-maintained community garden, shaded sitting areas overlooked by newly planted shrubs, an accessible pathway cleared, dug and paved by the volunteers, and a wide mix of ages, genders and social backgrounds using the skatepark or enjoying the outdoor seating spaces.
As in Hackney with Betongpark, Shaun and the other volunteers in Birmingham were helped by experienced professional skatepark builders. The hand-polishing devices used successfully on the Hackney Bumps were lent to the Bournbrook volunteers, cementing a relationship between the two projects.
Another similarity between Bournbrook and Hackney is the role of local academics; Esther Sayers in Hackney and Berni Good in Bournbrook. Esther started skateboarding in her 40s and is a teacher and researcher in arts education at Goldsmiths, University of London. Berni is a psychologist undertaking research on the wellbeing and psychology of video game players, and has been part of the Birmingham skate scene for many years. As well as challenging the stereotype of exclusively young male skatepark users, they’ve brought their intellectual curiosity to these projects: Berni talks authoritatively about the impact of Bournbrook on skaters’ wellbeing, and Esther enthuses about the importance of the outdoor public space in Hackney to explore the relationship between bodily movement, learning and gender.
Together these two projects have had big impacts on my practice. We’re really proud at Skateboard GB to be one of the only formal organisations to have supported both projects, in terms of in-kind advice and financial contributions to outstanding capital costs, kindly enabled by Habito.
In my project in Nottingham, we took inspiration from the can-do attitude displayed in Hackney and Bournbrook and applied it to our ‘problem’: a partially finished skatepark within the city’s most disadvantaged ward. The local residents of the Sneinton Tenants and Residents Outreach Programme (STOP-TRA) had effectively taken on maintenance of the wider green space, King Edward Park; the park sits on the footprint of one of Britain’s first asylums and has been a key amenity since the Second World War, when it provided war garden allotment space for residents to grow their own vegetables. The group had re-established the neglected allotments and renovated a former nursery building as an events space, but needed a bigger workforce to improve the space further. To tackle this, last summer we established the ‘Skate & Give Back’ project; in exchange for free skate lessons, parents and young people scraped old paintwork from the pavilion, joined residents on their weekly litter pick around the wider green space, and helped with allotments. It was a vital moment of outdoor togetherness and shared purpose after the trauma of the first wave of COVID-19.
Like Bournbrook and Hackney Bumps, a visibly improved green space and facility for outdoor exercise in Nottingham is the project’s legacy. The challenge now is to sustain activity in these spaces, all of which are unlikely to receive significant Local Government support in the foreseeable future. This means collaborating more with other groups committed to our green spaces, and finding new ways to draw energy from skateboarders’ unique range of interests, motivations and skills.
This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
Strictly Necessary Cookies
Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings.
If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again.