Join June Community Picnic in Brockwell Park

A community picnic is taking place in Brockwell Park on Saturday 23 June as part of the nationwide Great Get Together.

The bring-and-share picnic is open to everybody, of all ages and backgrounds. Picnickers are encouraged to bring food that fits the theme – ‘Your Favourite Food From Home’ – both to eat and to share with others. This will provide the opportunity for people to get to know a little more about each other and to celebrate the wonderful, vibrant place that is Herne Hill – London’s best kept secret!

The Great Get Together was started in 2017, inspired by the late Jo Cox MP, for people to celebrate that which we have in common, and not that which divides us. A series of events will be taking place nationwide to reinforce this idea, set up by local people.

There will be blankets but please feel free to bring along more, as well as garden chairs if you would prefer not to sit on the ground.

There will also be a quiz at 4pm for those who wish to take part. There is also plenty of space in the park for rounders, football and games.

Please help us look after Brockwell Park for future generations and keep single-use plastics to a minimum.

This will be a relaxed, friendly and enjoyable event spending time together. Come down, on your own, with family or with friends and make new ones!

You can find out more and RSVP to the event on Facebook.

The organisers still need some help, so if you are able to offer any assistance – time, donations, skills or ideas – then please do get in touch. They are hoping to acquire:

Gazebos in case of rain;
Drinks
Musicians;
Speakers;
Extra picnic gear;
Face painters.

This is not an exhaustive list and we would love to hear from anybody with any means of helping out both before and on the day. You can contact Imogen Watson at imogencwatson@gmail.com.

FoBP Opposes Two Major 2018 Brockwell Park Events

PRESS RELEASE

The Committee of the Friends of Brockwell Park (FOBP), at a special meeting held on 4 December, unanimously decided to oppose applications for two major events, proposed for summer 2018, as being of a scale wholly unsuited to a small urban park such as Brockwell.

The FOBP’s principal objections to Field Day/The Mighty Hoopla (1-3 June) and Love Box/Citadel (13-15 July) being allowed to come to Brockwell Park are:

1 Exclusion of local community: these events, each of which stands to make their organisers £6 million revenue, have little benefit to the local community whose council taxes pay for the park. They will damage Brockwell Park’s offer of a safe and free haven for the young and the old, whatever their income, for families, for sportspeople, for dog walkers, and the mentally fragile—and summer is a particularly special time for many.

2 Size of area taken: fencing off between a third and a half of the terrain, the events will be a gigantic intrusion into our beloved park, the like of which we have never seen.

3 Length of occupancy: there will be 46 days of event occupation (buildup, event and breakdown) out of 67 days between 20 May and 25 July, including half term/holidays.

4 Noise levels: Lambeth Council is permitting highest decibel levels from 12 noon to 10.30pm, deafening in the park, deeply disturbing and intrusive for a large area outside it.

5 Environmental impact: the footfall of 40-45,000 visitors a day for six days, plus the many heavy vehicles installing and dismantling these events over 46 days in three major months of summer is an intolerable burden on the ecology of the park, even in good weather. If there is bad weather, the damage will be horrendous. The impact on Brockwell Park’s rich wildlife of these 46 days of disturbance is of deep concern to the Friends.

The impact on Brockwell Park’s rich wildlife of these 46 days of disturbance is of deep concern to the Friends.

‘Parks are not money trees for private companies or cash-strapped councils,’ said FOBP Chair, Peter Bradley. ‘Of course those who can afford it should enjoy open air concerts of the music they like, but not in a small urban park such as Brockwell. It just does not have the capacity to host such gigantic events. We oppose them utterly.’

Background to Brockwell Park Events Debate

At a special meeting held on Monday 4 December, the committee of the Friends of Brockwell Park (FOBP) discussed two applications to hold major events in Brockwell Park next summer:
Field Day/The Mighty Hoopla (1-3 June)
Love Box/Citadel (13-15 July)

Summary
These two three-day events will be the largest gated, paying ones ever held in Brockwell Park, with an estimated 120,000 attendance at each (240,000 all told), making estimated revenue for the two private organisers of more than £6 million each (£12 million in total). Brockwell Park will directly get £60,000 if that attendance is achieved, or 1% of £6 million, while Lambeth Council will get a further undisclosed but substantial fee, which one commentator has claimed is half a million pounds in total for the two events.
The financial stakes both for the private organisers and the Council are extraordinarily high and the FOBP fears that both will lose sight of whether there is any genuine benefit to the local community, apart from financial, that these two events will bring. Parks are not money trees for private companies or cash-strapped councils.

A tale of two parks
Both events have come from Victoria Park, but the two parks are not similar at all. Victoria Park is flat and criss-crossed by busy roads, giving a natural, level enclave for events. At 50.8 hectares, Brockwell Park is 60% of the size of Victoria Park (86.18 hectares) and Brockwell’s hilly topography means the footprint of these events is wholly disproportionate to the scale of Brockwell Park.

Lambeth Country Show argument
The private organisers and the Council argue that because Brockwell hosts the annual Lambeth Country Show (LCS), which last year had 150,000 attendees, it can manage these private, gated events. The LCS is much loved, including by the FOBP, who welcome it and want it to stay free. But that is precisely the point: LCS is free and not gated, as were the once-in-a-generation major GLC concerts of the past, such as Rock Against Racism. The LCS creates the feelgood factor, precisely because it is open to all, regardless of income. It is of huge diversity, from the flower tent to the urban farm. It does not impose high-decibel music on people whose tastes differ. It is inclusive, not exclusive, it is all that is good about Lambeth. The thought that it is beyond the wit of Lambeth Council to keep the LCS free without doing deals with Lovebox beggars belief.

Objection 1. Exclusivity
These two events appeal to a limited demographic of people who have the ability to pay £50 a day and upwards to attend them, so by their pricing they exclude people of limited means in what is still one of London’s poorest boroughs. But the range of those excluded is far wider. Parks offer a safe and free haven for the young and the old, whatever their income, for families, for sportspeople, for dog walkers, for picnic parties, for the troubled and the mentally fragile—and summer is a particularly special time for many.
But these events are not take it or leave it; everyone who visits the park has no choice but to accept the noise and disruption. Of course those people who love loud music at 90 decibels in the open air should be catered for, but it is the FOBP’s view that this should not be in a small, urban park such as Brockwell. Parks are about balancing competing interests, but these events are set up to attract people from outside the local community and FOBP believes priority should be given to the locals whose council taxes pay for Brockwell Park.

Objection 2. Extent of takeover of the park
Maps provided by the organisers show the extent of the Park to be enclosed is on a scale never previously experienced. One of the most popular stretches of the Park—from the Herne Hill Gate to the Lido—will be sealed off completely, with damaging financial consequences for the much-loved model railway, which will be unable to run for weeks on end, almost certainly jeopardising its long-term survival. The main path from the Herne Hill Gate to the Hall will be closed completely. The Lido will be almost completely closed off and huge new structures constructed in the field beyond it towards St Jude’s Church and on the redgra pitch. It is claimed only 35% of the Park will be taken, but it looks much more like 50%. It will be a gigantic intrusion into our beloved park.

Objection 3. Length of time: 46 days
From setup of Field Day/The Mighty Hoopla on 20 May to getout of Love Box/Citadel on 20 July, these two events will occupy the Park for 41 days (plus 5 days for the Lambeth Country Show, which runs back to back with Love Box/Citadel and gets out on 25 July).
From mid-May to the end of July, therefore, including the summer half term, the Park will not be available to users in any normal way for 46 out of 67 days, ie 68% of the time. That is unacceptable to FOBP.

Objection 4. Environmental impact
The footfall of 40-45,000 visitors a day for six days, plus the many heavy vehicles installing and dismantling these events over 46 days in three major months of summer is an intolerable burden on the ecology of the park, even in good weather.
If there is bad weather, the damage done to the ground by 240,000 people over six days and heavy vehicles churning up mud for more than six weeks will be horrendous. Our experience is that, despite all the promises of good intent, such damage remains unfixed for years.
Fresh in the FOBP’s memory are the two Sunfall events of 2016 and 2017. With ‘only’ 20,000 a day, the vandalism, litter, brawling, urinating and defecation were terrible; FOBP believes the impact of 40-45,000 visitors a day for six days in the space of a month, with similar damaging behaviour, has not been seriously thought through and we do not believe it is sustainable.

Objection 5. Decibel level
The noise level of both events is inescapable, whether people have chosen to pay or not. And for these two events, Lambeth is permitting the highest decibel levels, something the FOBP has long opposed and has had support for its opposition from an extensive local survey. In some parks, Hyde Park, for instance, concerts are held far from housing. In Brockwell Park, the houses are cheek by jowl along its perimeter and the noise, for hours on end, deafening in the park and deeply disturbing and intrusive for a large area outside the park, for miles around.

Objection 6. Wildlife impact
The impact on Brockwell Park’s rich wildlife of these 46 days of disturbance from many heavy vehicles, including six days of high-decibel noise and excessive human footfall, from 12 noon to 22.30, is of deep concern to the Friends.

Conclusion
As a charity, we are bound by the two objects of our constitution:
* To seek to preserve and protect as an historic, landscaped, public open space the whole of the curtilage known as Brockwell Park, Herne Hill, to seek to maintain its beauty, history and ecological interest, and to enhance and promote the Park.
* To ensure its free enjoyment by all sections of the community for their recreation and leisure for the enhancement of the quality of life in this part of South London.

We do not believe these two events will help maintain Brockwell Park’s beauty, history and ecological interest; we believe they will damage them, perhaps severely. As gated, paying concerts, these two events do not offer ‘free enjoyment by all sections of the community for their recreation and leisure for the enhancement of quality of life’.

After prolonged discussion, the committee unanimously decided to oppose both events, as being wholly unsuitable for a small urban park such as Brockwell and will be conveying its views to Lambeth Council’s events consultation process.

Alice in the Walled Garden

Plunge down the rabbit hole and enter a fantastical world

The Walled Garden in Brockwell Park is the beautiful location of Sixteen Feet Productions’ first run of Alice in Wonderland performances this Summer.

They popped there last week just to check on their theatre space to make sure everything is in order. It is looking pretty stunning right now.

All that’s missing is Alice, a White Rabbit, a Mad Hatter, a Queen of Hearts, a King of Hearts, a Mock Turtle, a March Hare, a Cheshire Cat, a Seven of Cards, a Blue Caterpillar, a Gryphon & a Dormouse. But don’t worry, they’re on the case and getting ready to transport you and your little ones to the magical world of Wonderland. There’ll be music and singing and lots of tea! After all “It’s always tea time” in Wonderland.

Dates: 22nd – 31st July
For tickets and more information: http://bit.ly/2uphd9P
Box Office: 02078560380
Age Guide: 5+

After Brockwell Park, the production will visit Morden Hall Park National Trust, Rookery Gardens Streatham, Osterley Park National Trust

Lambeth Country Show

The Lambeth Country Show is the highlight of the park’s year

The mighty Lambeth Country Show (Saturday 15 and Sunday 16 July) is nearly upon us. Please come and visit our stall to find out about the role Friends of Brockwell Park plays in the life of our most precious green space. We will have volunteers on hand to discuss any aspect of park life. You may also be interested to hear about volunteering your skills or joining us (for an extremely modest amount). We’re looking forward to meeting you next weekend.

Car boot sale Sunday

Sellers from 7am and buyers from 9am

Sunday 9 July is clear your cellar, attic and cupboard day and then replace it with a bit more stuff. Yes, it’s the Friends of Brockwell Park car boot sale. It’s in the lido car park of course. Sellers from 7am and buyers from 9am. Not recommended for minimalists but a wonderful Sunday morning for just about everyone else.