Friends of Burgess Park and the Walworth Society are supporting the application by Historic England to have the World War One war memorial outside St Georges Church listed as having special architectural and historic interest. Some people may be surprised that this wasn’t already done. You can see more information on the bronze sculpture by Danish artist Arild Rosenkrantz on our page on St Georges Church.

Although born in Denmark, Rosenkrantz grew up from the age of three in Scotland and settled in London at twenty eight. He had a strong interest in mysticism and spirituality, and worked mainly in stained glass and painting. He studied and worked in Rome, Paris and New York, and also worked in Switzerland for Rudolf Steiner.

The memorial was unveiled on Sunday 19th September 1920 by Camberwell Mayor John George Spradbrow, and Reverend PM Herbert, Vicar of St George’s church. The funds for the memorial were raised by local parishioners.

The listing should give it a degree of protection, which would be useful, considering that it’s already been stolen for scrap and recovered once, and considering that the other memorial to war in the area has also disappeared. There had been a plaque to the memory of the 10 people killed in the Zeppelin raid in Calmington Road, until the buildings were demolished for the formation of the park.

A memorial stone was recently placed in Chumleigh Gardens, in recognition of all the lives lost during the first world war in the Camberwell area.

We intend to commemorate the centenary of the Zeppelin raid in October this year – watch this space.

Stop Press!!

We heard on 3rd July 2017 that the War Memorial has now been given grade 2 listed status. The reasons for the listing are given as

• Historic interest: as an eloquent witness to the tragic impact of world events on the local community, and the
  sacrifices they made in the First World War;
• Design: as an attractive and emotive sculpture of Christ by Danish artist Arild Rosenkrantz;
• Group value: with the Grade II-listed St George’s Church.

The  memorial is now officially known as the Burgess Park War Memorial.

Once again, Friends of Burgess Park will be opening up several usually-hidden parts of the Passmore Edwards building on Wells Way – or to give it its full title, the Old Library, Baths And Washhouse (OLBAW)! This year, we’re forging ahead with making plans for the future of the building, having received a grant of seed funding to assist with this from the Heritage Lottery Fund. Come along and help us visualise the possibilities for the future of the building. The Wells Way Popup in the old library building will provide hospitality with refreshments, and there’ll be a second chance to look at the displays we set up for for the Making of a Modern Park meeting in May.

Come and join us 1pm to 5pm, 19th and 20th September 2015.

Burgess Park has some of the most beautiful piles of rubble this time of year!

Come and find out about them on a guided walk with the designer, James Hitchmough, on 8th August 2015, starting at 11am. Read on for details and links.

At the hand-over of Burgess Park from the GLC (at their dissolution in 1986) to Southwark Council, there were many buildings remaining in the park. In some cases, the GLC had plans for them, which were never realised due to their demise. In other cases, compulsory purchase had not been arranged yet, or there were long leases about to expire.

These buildings were nearly all eventually cleared by Southwark Council in the following ten years. In many cases, the rubble was simply piled up and topsoil dumped on top of it all. So various hillocks appeared wherever the buildings had happened to be.

At the revitalisation stage in 2010, it was decided to make a feature of these hills by re-arranging them into a more meaningful formations.

 

 

The previous low plateaued hillocks became higher and steeper with ‘faces’ providing different climatic conditions to accommodate various kinds of planting.

 

 

The designers, LDA, engaged the services of the Sheffield University Horticultural Department to plan the planting. James Hitchmough, celebrated for the London 2012 Olympic gardens, wildflower meadows and horticultural planting, devised meadow and prairie-like elements, and these were sown in January 2012.

The north slopes comprise a ground layer of sown, shade-tolerant, mainly woodland perennials from which emerge summer and autumn flowering tall perennials. The West facing slopes support a heat and drought tolerant cosmopolitan meadow, running down to a drainage swale at the base. Despite some of the challenges, public response to the wildflowers has been extremely positive.

Professor Hitchmough will lead a walk explaining the design and planting, and describe how he arrived at the design. The walk will start at the western end, at the Tennis Courts near Addington Square, and visit the hills nearby. It will then move on to St Georges Gardens at the eastern side of the park, where he designed complex garden-like planting, which is looking beautiful now.

Please sign up for the walk on Eventbrite, where there will be a small deposit to pay, refundable on the day.

 

On 23rd May 2015, we followed up last year’s Bombs to BMX talk on the history of the the area by bringing the account of the making of the park almost up to date. Once again, we were privileged to have an auspicious line-up of guests, and the panel included some of the key players from the park’s growing years:

David Sadler MBE (former Burgess Park Manager) Joyce Bellamy OBE (GLC Parks Department) and Robert Hadfield (former vice-chair of Groundwork Southwark), chaired admirably by Barbara Pattinson (Chair of SE5 Forum)

David Sadler kicked things off in a relaxed style with his own memories of the challenges of running the park day to day. Metaphorically and literally down to earth stuff. He’d been Deputy Park Manager (working for the London County Council) for a few years in the 1960s and recalled helping plant some of the very first trees of what was then known as the “North Camberwell Open Space”. It would eventually be renamed Burgess Park – even though, as he later recounted, if the local schools had had their way, it would universally have been named Georgie Best Park.

Schools involvement was later a big part of his work – the nature area on Cobourg road for instance, where school groups were invited along to study wildlife reclaiming a bomb-site.

Having moved on to work in West Kensington, no less, it was a call from out of the blue that queued up a mystery promotion opportunity. It proved, of course, to be Burgess Park. Despite some friendly dismay (“why do you want to go there? it’s not even a park!?”), David returned to Camberwell, and the streets he’d known as a boy, now as Parks Manager. He would stay throughout the 70s, until the abolition of the GLC in 1986, when “we all found ourselves very suddenly out of a job”. But before then there were colourful stories of run-ins with the Richardsons on Neate Street, Cypriot festivals, discoveries of warehouses full of contraband whisky and even a proud turning point visit from the Duke of Edinburgh himself in 1985 – rudely derailed by the Brixton Riots.

Joyce Bellamy followed – always engaging, and once again on fine form. Joyce gave a very clear account of the painstaking piecemeal acquisition of land that went to build up the green space – over literally decades. She recalled the sheer scale of endeavour involved in decontaminating every inch of acquired ground – like the creosote contaminated ex-timber-yard plots. Over in Addington Square there’d been a scientific instrument makers, painting dials with gow-in the-dark paint, where “the soil in that area ticked when it was tested” [for radioactivity, with a Geiger counter]. The square, she noted as an aside, lacks tall trees in the centre to this day, because of the air raid shelter beneath it.

As ever Joyce displayed her usual knack for marrying big ideas to on-the-ground details, such as the local impact of the Civic Amenities Act, and recalling a later period “when the police had seemingly decided that all trees harbour muggers”. But her overarching tone was clear – one of quiet pleasure in seeing the park today blooming, and especially looking so well used.

Robert Hadfield’s take reflected a later age, where grand visions were viewed a little more warily. Southwark Council had acquired the park rather suddenly in the mid 80s, and it seems initially nobody was quite sure what to do with it. Robert recalled with horror some of the dubious past plans (all thankfully fought off) to sell off plots of park land, noting in hindsight how they’d always occurred in June, July, & August when there were no Council meetings and the officers ran riot… There was almost a touch of W1A farce in some of the stories, including one of a war memorial being nicked, then spotted on the back of a lorry in east London and chased into the suburbs, later to be returned to its spot in front of St George’s church. On the surreal landscape of residual derelict buildings awaiting outright demolition, was the observation that they provided both hazard and resource alike – to  eagle-eyed Robert on the lookout for a bit of skirting board or spare parts from the car-breakers’ yards.

But Robert’s overall theme was a cheerful reminder – that despite the highs and lows, and even the odd collective ghastly moment, the park always has been used and enjoyed by thousands, day-in day-out.

After a brief interval with refreshments and exhibition, the second half was given over to a lively audience question session. It was great to see a few familiar faces in the audience, such as Tim Charlesworth (author of “THE STORY OF BURGESS PARK – FROM AN INTRIGUING PAST TO A BRIGHT FUTURE”, and a memorable guest speaker last year), and the good folk of the Walworth Society.

We hope the supporting exhibition went down well – our thanks to Southwark Local History Library & Archive for permission to reproduce some of the images.

Finally a word of thanks to the Wells Way Pop-Up, who hosted us beautifully, providing seating and café.

Listen to Part 1 – presentations from the three speakers, following introductions from Susan Crisp – Friends of Burgess Park and Chair Barbara Pattinson – chair of SE5 Forum:

Listen to Part 2 – Questions from the floor:

2-4pm, 23^rd May 2015

Wells Way Pop Up, The Old Library, 39 Wells Way, London SE5 OPX

The story of the post-war creation of Burgess Park, told by some of the prime instigators. A free Friends of Burges Park Heritage Event, as part of the Chelsea Fringe (donations gratefully received).

Come and join in the conversation with Joyce Bellamy, OBE, former head of parks for GLC, Dave Sadler, former park manager, Robert Hadfield, formerly with Groundwork.

 

The chat will be illustrated with images, maps, brochures and newsletters showing the development of the park from its WWII bomb site beginnings through the multi-million pound 2010 make-over to the present day.

There’ll be light refreshments available from the on-site cafe. This is a free Friends of Burgess Park Heritage Event, as part of the Chelsea Fringe festival (donations gratefully received).

Buses 343 and 136 (Elephant and Castle/Peckham/Lewisham) go almost to the door. Wells Way Pop Up is not fully accessible to wheelchair users: The access to the building is up 7 stone stairs and there are no level access toilet facilities in the building. If you can manage the entry steps and the steps to/from the basement level, we can assist with your access requirements.

Please help us plan for the day by registering on Eventbrite:

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-making-of-a-modern-park-tickets-16526271523

For more information, contact: friendsofburgesspark@gmail.com