FRIENDS OF BURGESS PARK protect | promote | enhance
Friends of Burgess Park win Heritage Lottery Fund support
The Friends of Burgess Park have received £51,500 from the Heritage
Lottery Fund (HLF) for an exciting project “Burgess Park: The Bridge to
Nowhere?” exploring the history and unusual development of Burgess Park
in Southwark. Led by volunteers from the local community, the project
will enable local people to find out more about how Burgess Park has
been created out of the urban landscape over the last sixty years. The
project launches at the May Fair on Saturday, 18th May followed by more
events during the summer. Read the press release.
23 June, 10am Foraging walk Forage London is coming to Burgess Park giving an insight into what’s growing beneath our feet. This is a chance to learn about edible plants, nutrition, medicine, herbalism, botany, cookery, horticulture and history. To book a place and for further information visit Forage London.
Pictures below from a previous Dig the Park event near the Glengall Wharf Community Garden laying new woodchip paths. Many thanks to all who joined in.
Native hedging project Are you interested in growing native hedging plants for use in Burgess Park? Native hedges provide cover, food, pollen and nectar and nesting sites for wildlife. They link different habitats allowing wildlife to move around the park and will provide beautiful and interesting screening when incorporated into the park boundaries. More information about the hedging project
Burgess Park Revitalisation - what's happening
Fountains The fountains outside the Park Life Cafe will be back on around the 30 May.
Drinking fountains We have been working with Burgess Park’s resident sculptors in the park whom we have commissioned to design, construct and install two unique drinking fountains. The first of these should be ready at the end of this month and will be put in the over five’s play area. The second will be installed later outside the Park Life Cafe.
St George’s Gardens The fences are now up in readiness to complete the St George’s Gardens scheme. The design, which depicts the gardens of the original Victorian houses on this site will be planted in two stages with the herbaceous planting commencing in June and the sowing of the prairie meadows from September onwards. The area will be fenced for at least a year to protect the plants. Local residents with an interest in gardening will be invited to volunteer and help with some of the herbaceous planting.
Lake planting Additional plants will be planted later in May. The planting will be protected in order to give them a chance to establish and also to protect them from the wildfowl in the lake. Further planting will also be undertaken in the wetlands adjacent the lake.
Wildlife survey The London Wildlife Trust (LWT) is currently surveying the areas of biodiversity in the park with the aim of understanding the extent of species growing in these spaces. They will then use this information to specify what management techniques should be implemented to enhance species richness. If you want to find out more come along to the Friends of Burgess Park meeting on 4 June, 7pm at Burgess Park Sports Centre, Cobourg Road when LWT will be discussing their findings.
Burgess Park forums Are you passionate about Burgess Park? Do you think there are things that can be improved or do you have a brilliant idea that you’d like to suggest? Later this month the Burgess Park director will be chairing a series of forums on sport and play, arts and events, volunteering and biodiversity to give you an opportunity to keep up to date on happenings in the park and also put forward your opinions and suggestions. Further information about the Burgess Park forums and dates are on the Southwark website.
BMX Building works have now started on the new national standard BMX track and are due for completion by the end of July 2013. The site will be floodlit until 9pm and there will be a dedicated park attendant on site during the summer. Additional facilities include CCTV, toilets and a drinking fountain. If you have any questions please contact Ruth Miller.
Chumleigh Gardens The World Gardens were created in 1992 and consist of the Mediterranean, Oriental, Afro-Caribbean, Islamic and English gardens. John Wade, Burgess Park Director and Mark Cox, the head gardener have now started a programme of redesigning the English Garden with a new planting scheme that they feel is in keeping with the past and reflects the botanical heritage of Chumleigh Gardens. The first phase of the English garden is now complete with over 4,000 plants.
Surrey Canal New bins are being installed along the Surrey Canal Walk.
Picture Burgess Park competition organised by the Friends of Burgess Park.
The
park is undergoing a major transformation - the aim of the
competition is to help record what Burgess Park means to locals and how
we are affected by the changes, collecting the best images showing
Burgess Park as it is now, as it develops and what it will become.
We
are inviting all local photographers - pro and amateur, old and young -
to send pictures and/or short films (max 2 minutes); we'll also be
organising a series of community events to mark key moments in the
competition.
We started with the theme of 'Our memories' and the other suggested themes are: nature, sport and play, art and the future.
The
e-mail subject line becomes the title of the blog post so it is best to
be descriptive (e.g. subject line: Memory: an autumn morning); and any
text you put in the body of the e-mail becomes the body of the blog
post - it's a good idea to put a bit of 'blurb' with each post to give
them context (e.g. This is a picture of the sun rising over Burgess
Park on a cold October morning - it made me think of the memory theme
as it took me back to cold winter of last year)
We have extended the project into 2013 and we hope to hold an exhibition later this year.
Burgess Park in pictures
from top: pictureburgesspark.com : Alberto Alvaro Marc Green hello-flower.com andinmyhandsacamera.com (follow the links to see the big picture)
Video diary of Burgess Park food project event on 21st May 2011.
Latest newsletter from the food project about the £46,000 grant received from Community Spaces.
The Burgess Park Food Project
The Burgess Park Food Project has opened a new community garden in Burgess Park. On the site of Glengall / Glengall
Wharf at the top of the Surrey Canal Walk, a group has been
established to run the project.
The aim of the group and the garden is to promote healthy, local and
fresh food, and will be a growing project open to all, a place to learn
and share skills related to growing, food, permaculture, sustainability
and related subjects.
More information can be found on these sites.
http://burgessfoodproject.posterous.com/
Burgess Park Food Project
email: burgessfoodproject@gmail.com
pictureburgesspark.com Follow the link to see the entries in the Friends of Burgess Park community photografathon.
Friends of Burgess Park meetings 2013
Our regular meetings are usually held on the first Tuesday of the month from 7-9pm at the Burgess Park Community Sports Ground on Cobourg Road, SE5
Meetings coming up at the Community Sports Centre, Cobourg Rd, SE5 Tuesday, 2 July .
The
park is undergoing a major transformation - the aim of the
competition is to help record what Burgess Park means to locals and how
we are affected by the changes, collecting the best images showing
Burgess Park as it is now, as it develops and what it will become.