September news is that the bridge has finally opened to the public again, after many years of being fenced and chained off. (See our July 2023 post here about the renovations.) You can now ascend its dizzying heights to admire a panoramic view of the park. You can also examine in close-up the great job the council and contractors have made in restoring the bridge to its original glory!
(click the images to enlarge)
The final image above is set to become historically important as the view changes with the coming demolition of the large Aylesbury Wendover block. This will reveal the Shard in all its glory, before inevitably being screened by an even larger replacement block!
Update: November 2023
Someone decided the new red tiles on the steps could look more interesting, maybe following an example they’d seen in NYC. The council disagreed however – so it was a short-lived experiment.
That familiar sight in the park, the canal footbridge, as recent park visitors will have noticed, has just been having some extensive work done. It was a Godsend when built in 1905, with the area probably at its most dense with housing, factories and people. It sadly became a Bridge to Nowhere from 1970, when the canal it crossed was filled in. Since the 1990s, it’s even been unsafe for sight-seeing from its grand height of about 10 feet up, and looking in an increasingly sorry state.
Southwark Council had to make the difficult decision to demolish or retain and renovate the bridge. Just leaving it to further deteriorate was not an option. Thankfully, following a survey of the condition in 2021, they decided on repair and renovation. For those of us interested in the heritage of the park, that was the Right Decision!
The survey revealed a few areas of deterioration, leading to potential health and safety concerns, and a list of repairs was drawn up:
Remove and replace footways on the bridge deck
Carry out replacement or repair of deteriorated transverse and parapet beams
Replace existing spreader beams
Break out eroded brickwork on the south abutment and replace with matching new
Supply and install new concrete coping stones along top of existing wall
Repair all cracks in existing brickwork and pointing
Sandblast all metal parts and re-paint to original colour
Work started in April 2023, and was scheduled for 3 months at a cost of £323,553, sadly around 100 times the original cost of the bridge in 1905! But it’s a thorough job and it’s now looking really smart. All the TLC should ensure that this great symbol of Burgess Park survives well into the 21st century. AND, we won’t need to change the name of this website!
Read more about the history of the building of the bridge on our dedicated page.
Stop Press!
The bridge is now open to pedestrians! Check the news here.
This year marks the 200th anniversary of Passmore Edwards’ birth on 24th March 1823, and Friends of Burgess Park is joining with others around the UK to celebrate the Passmore Edwards 200 Festival. He funded the Wells Way Library, now in the Park, and we’re holding a programme of events based at there on Sunday 26th March. There’s an exhibition about the man and his legacy, children’s activities, a commemorative tree-planting, a reading by local author Jacqueline Crooks from her new book Fire Rush, refreshments and more. We’ve also organised a short Bike Tour around three of Passmore Edwards’ south London buildings, guided by renowned local architect Benedict O’Looney. You can book now for the bike tour on Eventbrite – places are limited to 25, so book early!
From humble Cornish beginnings, Passmore Edwards went on to become a journalist, newspaper proprietor and MP. He amassed a sizable fortune which he used to further the education of working people all over the UK. He did this mainly by funding numerous public buildings – around 70 in total.
John Passmore Edwards
In all, Edwards funded 15 libraries in London as well as several other public buildings, such as the South London Gallery and the LSE. Many of these buildings are still in public use today for a variety of purposes. The Wells Way library was opened in 1903. Read more about the Old Library Baths and Washhouse on our page here. Friends of Burgess Park is hoping the bicentenary celebration will focus attention on this significant building which sits, currently unused, in the middle of Burgess Park.
Come and find out more about the remarkable man Passmore Edwards on Sunday afternoon, 26th March 2023. Sign up for the bike tour (2-4pm) on Eventbrite, or drop round to the Wells Way Library from 2pm and join in the fun.
Friends of Burgess Park recently had several inquiries about artworks in the park, via our Facebook and Twitter accounts, which prompted us to take a look ourselves, and find out more! Richard Barton inquired about the artworks in order to include them in an Art Walk around Camberwell (now published in the Camberwell Quarterly here), and during lockdown, staff of the South London Gallery were looking for similar information for a park tour they were designing for their own interest.
Art in the Park’s Window Maps showing the history of the area
So together with Andrea from Art in the Park (based in the Chumleigh Gardens enclave) and Monica from Friends of Burgess Park, we’ve compiled as comprehensive a list as we could muster. As always with these things, they’re a work-in-progress, but we now have details on some 12 of the 15 items we’ve identified so far. Please help us if you have more details on these, or let us know of any we’ve missed.
Murals in the Children’s Library, Wells Way Old Library, Baths and Washhouse, which normally need an appointment to view
The list so far is on a permanent page and it covers works ranging in age and style from the 1920 WW1 war memorial outside St George’s Church to the carved tree trunk near the tennis courts, made in 2018. The page has an interactive map you can use to create your own tour of the works, so get out there with your smartphone or tablet and visit as many as you can. They’re all outside (apart from the Children’s Library murals which need a special arrangement to view), so make it your lockdown – and post-lockdown – exercise!
When the park was conceived, back in the dark days of WW2 (see Abercrombie Plan and Jessie Burgess here), there was a perception of overcrowded areas needing the space of a new park to breathe. As the area around the canal was becoming ‘post-industrial’, and was surrounded by dense, poor quality housing, this part of south London was picked out as a good location for a new park.
The park has developed over the years and had large amounts of money spent on beautifying it and improving the facilities for the surrounding population. Planners and supporters have endeavoured to do this in a balanced way, at the same time providing wildlife havens and linking up with other small pockets of green in the area to create wildlife corridors. Many of the wildlife areas have been created out of parcels of Metropolitan Open Land – a designation similar to the Green Belt around London, designed to protect the few remaining areas of green space in the inner city.
Originally, these areas of MOL were then compulsorily purchased in order to legally become parkland. However, that system of taking over land became unpopular and more and more expensive as land prices in the city have risen. This has meant that various areas of MOL have been left in limbo – intended to be incorporated into the park, but remaining in private ownership. There have been several campaigns in the past to try and ensure the MOL designations in the park are respected – see Southwark News article here. One recent successful application of the principle of MOL has been in the deal done by the Council with the owners of a property in Parkhouse Street. This had an historic spur of land, used as a parking area, jutting into the park and splitting the wildlife area in two. It’s since been fully incorporated into the park and landscaped to match the surrounding area.
Former police vehicle yard in2918 (visible in the trees on the left) jutting into the park right up to the now removed New Church Road. Inset map shows it as green outlined finger in the orange MOL.
Now that the park has become extremely desirable, it’s attracting many new housing developments to the area, at just the same time as it’s attracting more visitors. Most of the north side of the park, originally the Aylesbury estate, is being replaced with a mixed private/public estate which will see a lot more tall blocks overlooking the park, selling for high prices because of their park view. A lot of the south side is so far still industrial land, to the north of Parkhouse Street, with low-rise former industrial premises and factories. However, there have already been several planning applications to replace 3 or 4 industrial premises with around 275 flats, at 9, 10 and 11 stories, right up to the park boundary. On the other side of Parkhouse Street, is the proposed Camberwell Union development of 500+ flats. We consider this to be over-development, in all kinds of ways.
However, a still more worrying development is the plan to replace the long-standing reclamation yard at the corner of New Church Road/Southampton Way (13 Southampton Way). This is on one of the final unincorporated pieces of Metropolitan Open Land, which was always planned to be part of the park. The proposal to build 4 and 7 story blocks right on the corner, adjoining the well-developed wildlife sanctuary will be a big mistake. Like the Parkhouse Street developments, it will overshadow the wildlife area and wildflower meadow, blocking sunlight from acres of ground in the winter. It will make the corner in the road very constricted for traffic and for pedestrians entering and leaving the park, and disrupt wildlife routes.
Proposed development (ringed) on MOL at corner of Southampton Way
Please sign the petition being raised by Burgess Park Action Group here. Please also get involved with the work of Friends of Burgess Park to protect the park from over-development of surrounding streets, to the detriment of the park, its users and wildlife.
Borough of Southwark ‘Adopted Policies’ map showing existing park boundary in green, with orange shading denoting MOL. Ringed area is the proposed development. The former police vehicle yard is shown at upper right
We had great news on 30th September 2018! The Mary Boast Prize, which is organised by the Camberwell Society, has been won by an essay from some of the Friends of Burgess Park ‘Zeppelin 1917’ team. A big thank you to all the volunteer authors including the essay editing team of Judith Barratt, Joan Ashworth and Susan Crisp.
The prizewinning essay, which you can read here, tells the story of the 1917 Zeppelin raid on the park, covered on this website, and also the events organised by the Friends of Burgess Park to commemorate the terrible occasion. The winner was announced at the end of a fascinating local history walk around Burgess Park and the surroundings, also covering some of the planned new developments to the area.
The essay is based on work done in 2017 by many volunteer researchers who joined with members of the Friends to investigate the events of 1917 with the help of a Heritage Lottery Fund grant. All kinds of information was uncovered with the help of nearby archives such as the Southwark Local History Archive, the Imperial War Museum and the Cuming Museum collection. At the special events organised to commemorate the centenary in October, we were honoured by the presence of several close members of the two families who lost the biggest number of relatives in the bombing. We were able to add their information to the essay.
The Camberwell Society’s annual prize is named after Mary Boast, who was a popular local historian and the archivist at the Southwark Local History Library and Archives. She wrote the excellent, but now difficult to obtain, history booklet – The Story of Camberwell, and has a street named after her.
You’ll be able to read the essay in full in the Camberwell Quarterly magazine, to be published by Christmas 2018. Order your copy now! Or join the Camberwell Society and have it sent to your house for free! Or buy it in any local shop, if you’re in the area. Or read it now!
Along with over 60 others, I set out on the afternoon of Saturday 21st October for a breezy walk around Burgess Park, to find out more about what happened 100 years ago on Friday 19th October 1917, when the Zeppelin bombing raid struck over Walworth, South-east London. The event took the shape of an animated walk – the narrator guides walkers around significant points in the park where actors play out the voices of people caught up at the time of the Zeppelin strike. If you missed the event itself, an audio version will be available soon as a podcast.
John Whelan, the project lead, narrated the events, and one of the first things we learned was that the weather was very similar on that night, with a heavy, gusting wind that meant the Zeppelins were not heard until they were almost overhead – the Silent Raid.
The start of the walk outside Theatre Delicatessen in Burgess Park
The first ‘Voice from the Past’ was the Zeppelin commander, Kapitänleutnant Waldemar Kölle, who gave an account of the long flight from Germany. The Zeppelin flight was affected by the wind, getting blown off course – they were aiming for the northern industrial city of Sheffield – and had to climb higher into the freezing atmosphere to avoid gunfire from British planes. Kölle praised his gallant crew who were frozen and tired yet stayed at their posts – but it was hard to see what alternative they had! Eventually, after crossing London and dropping it’s bombs, on its way back to base, the Zeppelin ran out of fuel, crash-landimg in France where the crew were taken prisoners of war.
Captain Kohle
We heard more Voices from the Past – some of the people involved in the war effort: the so-called Canary Girls, whose skin and hair turned yellow due to the chemicals they were working with in the munitions factories; the newly-introduced air-raid warden – issued with a whistle to warn people to take cover! And from the reporter restricted in what could be published by the all-encompassing ‘Defence of the Realm Act’ (DORA).
Over the course of the afternoon we had sunshine, while listening to the Voices from the Past of the conscientious objectors, who had to defend their position in court, many of whom were imprisoned during the war…
Conscientious objector Ada Salter speaks to the crowd
… and also rain, as we heard the Voices from the Past of distinguished visitors who came to see the bomb-site at Calmington Road and talk to the survivors, no less than the Prime Minister of day, David Lloyd George and their majesties King George V and Queen Mary.
At one point there was a rainbow, symbol of hope, as we walked from one location to another.
The most poignant part of the walk for me, was when we reached the actual spot where the bomb fell, at what used to be the junction of Calmington Road with Albany Road.
Images of six of the people who died, almost on the exact spot
The photographs of the victims on the railings and the sad stories of those who died, those who survived but lost children, or were affected for the rest of their lives, really brought home the grim reality of civilian deaths in wartime.
One of the most moving aspects of the whole project was the involvement of the families of the victims and survivors of the bombing raid. We were able to meet with the siblings and descendents of both the Balls family, who lost two members, and the Glass family, who lost four. Greta and Peter, younger sister and brother of Eddie and Sonny Balls (pictured far right on the railings above) attended the opening of the season on 7th October (see report here). Barbara, daughter of Jesse Glass and granddaughter of Emma Glass (pictured far left, above) attended both the opening and the animated walk, travelling with members of her family to London from St Leonards.
Barbara with images of her Uncle and Aunt who didn’t live to know her
The whole family found the exhibition and walk very informative and moving. Many people involved in the war didn’t like to dwell on the suffering and so details were often not discussed with family members in the aftermath. Mark (grandson of survivor Jesse Glass) wrote to us after the animated walk very movingly:
‘…after only really having to hand over the years the details that my Nan could feel at ease with discussing …. it all feels quite surreal, and indeed on a personal level even overwhelming at the moment, to suddenly be receiving so much information in one go.’
‘Auntie Barbara seeing for the first time what her Nan, and her Aunties & Uncle, actually looked like was quite an experience …’ ‘… for Auntie Barbara … watching someone play her injured Mother who was calling out in the darkness to her own Mother … for us this was, very understandably, to be the most emotive experience of the day.’
‘My heartfelt appreciation to you and your colleagues for all your hard work’
Well done to John Whelan and all the actors and project volunteers who put together a vivid and moving portrayal of the events of the Zeppelin raid 1917. If you missed the walk itself, the soundtrack will be available shortly as a podcast for download or listening online. Please visit our newly-launched podcast pages now to listen to our archive of previous talks, and if you subscribeto the series in your podcast app (for free), you’ll receive the new Zeppelin episode automatically (as well as any episodes in the future) as soon as it’s published in the next few weeks.
Posted by Helen Crisp, 26th October 2017; additional details, 15th November.
In order to answer that question the Burgess Park Cricket Club helped lay out the size of Zeppelin L45 onto the park on Saturday morning using their boundary rope. In fact, we discovered the Zeppelin size is larger than a cricket pitch boundary! This aerial photograph, thanks to Damian Laurence’s drone piloting, shows the Zeppelin taking up the whole of the great lawn – as long as a street.
Photograph: Damian Laurence
Many thanks to Everton for organising this with the cricket club, and to Jo and Lewis from Southwark Parks for helping to move the huge amount of rope.
Cricket team loading the rope at the cricket club
Black Poppies Talk by Stephen Bourne
On Saturday afternoon local historian and author Stephen Bourne gave a presentation telling the story of how black people in Britain joined up for the forces and played a variety of roles in WWI. Unlike the USA, Britain did not segregate servicemen by colour. Stephen showed photographs from different regiments with black servicemen and explained the social history of black people as part of local communities in the UK prior to WWI. As the war progressed more forces were also drawn from the colonies and came to fight in Europe. Stephen’s book Black Poppies gives plenty of detail on the military and civilian wartime experience of black Britons, from the trenches to the music halls.
Stephen concluded his talk by outlining his research into the role of the police during the Zeppelin air raid on Calmington Road. The police officers who rescued people from the damaged buildings were all awarded medals. The role of the police as hidden heroes is recognised in the Zeppelin 1917 exhibition.
Stephen Bourne with the “Local Police Heroes” he contributed to the exhibition
1917 Knees Up
Vesta Tilley, called ‘Britain’s greatest recruiting sergeant’, famous music hall chorus was:
'Oh we don't want to lose you but we think you ought to go
For your King and your Country both need you so’
So quite a lot of social pressure to join-up!
Quipping Quizmaster Mike Raffone
We rounded up the with an evening with quizmaster extraordinaire Mike Raffone and a proper singalong from Mister Meredith (both sporting excellent moustaches). With several competitive quiz teams, including some of our volunteer researchers, as well as Glengall Wharf Garden and other local volunteers, the standard was high on the local knowledge, but less sure on the famous singers of the period.
Mister Meredith then took us through some well-known songs of the period – recruiting songs and music hall numbers – with the official words, and sometimes the soldiers’ own versions of the songs!
Musical Maestro Mister Meredith
Q: Who composed “Keep the Home Fires Burning” ?
A: Composed by Ivor Novello with words by Lena Guilbert Ford in 1914
The day before saw the arrival of our amazing Zeppelin art piece, specially built by Keith Roberts for the Zeppelin 1917 season. After “flying through” Burgess Park, the artwork was carefully hoisted into place by Jon and Keith. What an excellent way to kick off our launch. Keith has also contributed another artwork to embellish our project – Silent Voices, which can be seen in Chumleigh Gardens, opposite the First World War memorial stone.
Saturday 7th 10am…3 hours to launch
The day began in a flurry of good-natured activity fuelled by tea and biscuits. Massive thanks to all the hardworking exhibition installation volunteers (Jon, Andrew, Monica, Chris, Susan, Catriona, Judith, Charlie, Mercy and John) who worked tirelessly on both days (Friday till 10pm!) to get the TheatreDeli exhibition up and ready for the opening at 1pm. Wonderful teamwork. and it looks incredible!
Whist the exhibition setup was finished, over 50 parents and children enjoyed “Flying Designing” at the Fun Palace with hands-on workshops to make a Zeppelin, design a rocket and create a paper bird and flowers. Great excitement ensued when rockets were launched outside using plastic bottles, water and air pressure. Thanks go to Florence Goodhand-Tait for running the workshop with Art in the Park, Alice Sheppard, Citizen Science and Sue Smith, Camberwell Arts.
Flying machine design and model
The exhibition was then was formally opened by Councillor Johnson Situ, who was introduced by Susan Crisp, chair of the Friends of Burgess Park.
Councillor Johnson Situ opens the exhibition, with our speaker, Ian Castle looking on
Honoured Guests
Later in the afternoon we were honoured to host members of the two families at the heart of our project – descendants of the Balls and Glass families. The Boyce/Balls family includes Mrs Greta Druce (102 years old next month), who actually survived the raid, although, tragically Greta’s two brothers Eddie and Sonny Balls died and brother Leslie never recovered from the trauma. We also loved chatting to John and Barbara Shaw (up from the south coast) and Mark Draper (down from Crewe) all relatives of the Glass family – who lost 4 members that night.
Diane Druce (Balls family – centre) talks with John Shaw (Glass family – right) and Cllr Hargrove
At 4pm, Ian Castle gave a fascinating talk on ‘The Silent Raid’. The talk, illustrated with vivid images, was dramatic, touching, and funny at times. Above all, what Ian gave us was an evocative journey through the mind-set of the Zeppelin commanders and the damage they did to ordinary people and even to their own crews.
Warm thanks are due to our gallant speaker Ian Castle and his partner Nicola Price who overcame many obstacles to be with us. It was especially poignant to hear from the family members during the talk Q&A. It brought home what life was like for bombing victims – no one in the room could fail to truly understand the human cost of war.
Special thanks to John Whelan who has kept us on a steady course, coordinating the researchers and the fantastic volunteer sessions with our supporting partner organisations. John, will of course, be leading the Animated Walk on 21st October 2-4pm (meet at TheatreDeli), which promises to be a fitting coming together of all the research and experiences we have painstakingly gathered. I personally can’t wait for this experience!
The exhibition can be seen on Saturdays through October, and especially at our next talk ‘Black Poppies’, on the black community in WW1. On Saturday 14th, given by Stephen Bourne – book now!
Lastly a huge vote of thanks to our army of exhibition and walk research volunteers:
Joan Ashworth, Katie Bates, Neil Bright, Joy Campbell, Giles Camplin, Christine Camplin, Helen Crisp, Susan Crisp, Carol Field, Oran Hassan, Monica Heeran, Mercy Hopper, Sally Lynes, Joe May, Andrew Pearson, Jon Pickup, Barbara Selby, Frank Silva, Peta Steel, Peter Stevenson, Mercy Sword, Sam Tilling, Marion Wallace, Judith Wardle, Stella Young
Over the past few years we have made a number of audio recordings of our most popular events that the Friends have organised, and we’ve posted them up on various sites along the way (YouTube, Soundcloud, and indeed here on our own website). Now for the first time we’re bringing all our audio features together in one place in the form of a new podcast series, which will feature not only the highlights from our previous talks, but will also continue to be updated with all our audio offerings in the future.
And as with any podcast series, this means you can now download the audio to your own device, and if you choose to subscribe (it’s free!), you’ll be able to receive all our new episodes automatically.
Available from today are newly reversioned highlights of recent talks including From Bombs to BMX, and the excellent Oral Histories series, and if you subscribeyou’ll be among the first to receive the next new edition which will form part of the forthcoming Zeppelin 1917 series of commemorative events this October.
So, please start listening and let us know what you think!
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