Lewisham's parks and greenspaces have been officially named the "best" in London.

That's according to the results of the latest annual Good Parks for London report, launched on Thursday (November 18), which found that the borough ranked first of all 32 in London for the quality of its greenspaces.

The 2021 Good Parks for London report, the fifth of its kind, was dedicated year to parks and climate change. It looked at how London boroughs are performing against ten Good Parks criteria, including sustainability, supporting nature, community involvement, strategic planning and more.

Boroughs were given an overall score based on how they performed in each of the ten criteria, and Lewisham ranked first with an outstanding score of 49, pipping Lambeth (48.25) in second and Hounslow (47.5) in third.

Lewisham's 47 parks and 15 nature reserves were roundly praised in a number of areas. The changes to Beckenham Place Park in Lewisham in particular was applauded in the report, which cited the conversion of its golf course back into parkland, the restoration of a former lake into a water catchment, and plans to reforest large areas of the park.

Damien Egan, Mayor of Lewisham said after news of the report emerged:

"It is a huge achievement for Lewisham to be independently assessed as having the best parks in London in this year’s Good Parks for London report.

"As an inner-city London borough, we are very proud that our brilliant parks and green spaces here in Lewisham have been rated as Outstanding based on a rigorous set of criteria. I want to thank our fantastic and dedicated Parks and Green Spaces staff team together with our partners at Glendale.

"None of this is possible without our amazing community volunteers and Parks’ Friends user groups. We truly appreciate everything they do to make Lewisham’s parks and green spaces so special."

Lewisham Council pointed out that its new Parks and Open Spaces Strategy has also played a part in engaging with residents on how to improve the parks and the biodiversity found in them and better involve them in decision making.

Darren Budden, General Manager, Glendale Grounds Management also expressed his team's elation at the news: "We are extremely proud that the London Borough of Lewisham has topped the table as the top performing borough in the Good Parks for London Report 2021," he said.

"This is an accolade that demonstrates the commitment to Lewisham Parks and Open Spaces by numerous groups of people from Lewisham Council, Glendale, the various parks friends groups and other volunteers who contribute in many ways to us achieving this recognition.

"We would like to thank Tony Leach and Parks for London for their ongoing support in delivering this scheme. The report helps us improve performance by providing targets with the aim of striving to improve our parks and open spaces further each year for the benefit of all Lewisham residents and park users," Budden added.

Click here to view the full report.