What's happening

Central Venture Park Consultation

Central Venture Park - Renamed Kelly Avenue Park

A request from the park friends group was made to change the park's name to Kelly Avenue Park. The change reflects what many local residents already call the park and mirrors the name of one of the surrounding streets, making the park easier to find.

The council consulted local residents and park users to give everyone the opportunity to propose an alternative park name. This was followed by a final consultation where local people could choose their preferred name. External organisations were also consulted.

The name change will take immediate effect, with mapping systems being updated in due course.

Nunhead Cemetery East Lodge: From Ruin to Revival

Southwark Council and Friends of Nunhead Cemetery are delighted to announce that plans to fully restore Nunhead Cemetery’s East Lodge are one step closer, thanks to a £100,000 development grant from The National Lottery Heritage Fund.

The Grade II Listed East Lodge is currently on Historic England’s Heritage at Risk Register. The project, which has received initial support from The National Lottery Heritage Fund, aims to reinstate the building as a welcoming gateway to the cemetery with a new café, community space, and new base for Friends of Nunhead Cemetery and their volunteers.

For more information on the project. 

New mural at Dickens’ Fields

Survival Techniques is a legal street art project that aims to promote hope and optimism and bring a little light to someone having a dark day. Naomi Edmondson, a painter and street artist worked with teachers and students at Globe Academy to deliver this vibrant artwork at Dickens’ Fields.

Opening of Dickens’ Fields

Dickens’ Fields opened to the public on 1 September 2021 following a major revamp.

Back in 2014, Southwark Council committed to over £1million pound capital investment to regenerate Dickens Square Park and adjacent spaces, as part of a wider package of improvements in green spaces around Elephant & Castle.

Working with passionate and committed local stakeholders, the council held a series of community co-design workshops over several years to deliver a final design that would

• create a more welcoming, attractive and accessible park
• improve visibility around the park, allowing passive surveillance from nearby streets and residences, and reducing opportunities for anti-social activity
• provide new entrances and pathways
• introduce new furniture, play and sports equipment
• enable a coherent, well-designed park of high quality that meets the needs of residents and visitors

Our landscape architects, LDA Design, as well as the main contractor, Tilhill Forestry have done a brilliant job. Thank you to the local community and neighbouring stakeholders for their patience during the works.

The team has received overwhelmingly positive feedback since the opening of the site, describing the project as a ‘transformation’, an ‘absolute triumph’.

Burgess Park Sports Centre

We're excited to let you know that the project to construct the new Burgess Park Sports Centre is about to begin. We have brought the start date forward, in line with our funding partner’s requirements - the Football Foundation. This means that we have to close the sports centre from Monday 4 October so preparation for demolition can begin. However, we're keeping the all-weather pitch open for another month, and we will be providing temporary changing rooms for the duration of the build. A 9v9 grass pitch is being marked out across the road within the cricket and rugby facility.

Construction is currently expected to begin on 1 November. The timetable estimates reopening 2 brand new pitches by September 2022. We're looking into providing access to the pitches earlier if possible and will keep you informed of progress throughout the project.

Southwark Park's makeover

Regular visitors to Southwark Park will have noticed some changes in the past few months. Earlier in the year, we laid the native hedge which runs along the boundary of the park, behind the mounds near the tennis courts. This work was carried out by volunteers from Park Run and Southwark Council. Our contractor sent along some of their trainees and staff to learn from this experience. You may also have seen some new plants around the park. The new primulas in the woodland area near the Bowls Club looked especially good this spring. Picnic tables are being installed, thanks to CGS funding, and the noticeboards will be updated with revised maps of the park.

June 2021 Family fun fitness classes!

Due to our successful virtual fitness programme, from Tuesday 22 June 2021 we’ll be offering a collection of free family fun fitness sessions based in Southwark green spaces and delivered by local coaches and organisations.

Currently, the sessions are family yoga and family Zumba (with more classes to be added). They're aimed at families with young children. The weekly 45 minute classes will run from 22 June to 3 October 2021.

Find more information on our sport and physical activity news page.. 

Parking in parks

Parking charges have been introduced in the following five parks in the borough:

• Burgess Park
• Dulwich Park
• Honor Oak Park
• Peckham Rye Park
• Southwark Park: Hawkstone Road car park

Parking charges are £2 per hour.

Southwark Park Café

A new state of the art contemporary pavilion is now open which includes a new café and public toilets. The café has over 70 covers with seating overlooking the lake. New public toilets are now also open. Visit the café and enjoy a variety of foods, drinks and Gallo ice creams.

The café opening hours:

• Winter/Spring (October to March)
• Monday to Friday 9am to 4.30pm
• Saturday and Sunday 8am to 4.30pm
• Summer (April to September)
• Monday to Sunday 8am to 7pm

Hire Mint Street Adventure Playground building

Hire a space at our brand new Mint Street Adventure Playground building, located in close proximity to Borough station.

Bring your children’s party to life with our supervised adventure playground packages or spice up your team bonding sessions with our supervised rock climbing packages.

The venue is suitable for children’s parties, interactive workshops, meetings, training classes and on the ground floor a fully equipped kitchen is included. Mint Street Adventure Playground has a lot to offer.

You can find more information and hire.

Burgess Park Woodland play area is now open

A new play area has been built amongst the trees, near the entrance to Rust Square on Bowyer Place, SE5. The play area is part of a larger project called Burgess Park West which sees £3.5 million investment in the park. The play area is now open, in time for the Easter holidays and we invite families to come and try it out.

Green Dale’s Green helpers

The Friends of Green Dale are an amazing team of 80 people who carry out workdays every few months to help look after Green Dale Fields. Workdays consist of cutting back brambles along the path edge, creating log piles from trees that are cut down and collecting litter.

Share your news with us

If you have any news or ideas for future editions, email us.

Page last updated: 23 January 2024