Three of Lewisham’s parks have received gold awards at this year’s London in Bloom.
The London in Bloom Awards and campaign celebrates London’s efforts and projects to improve the city’s greenspaces, with an emphasis on making London a greener place.
This year three of Lewisham’s parks were awarded gold awards and two others were awarded silver awards.
We’ve rounded up this year’s winners and what they have to offer:
Gold Award Winners
Forster Memorial Park, Catford
Forster Memorial Park, located in Catford, was one of two parks in Lewisham to receive the Gold Award for Large Park.
The park, which was formerly woodland, was later turned into a memorial garden for the sons of Lord Forster, who were killed during World War I.
Today the park has a number of facilities including a café, two full-sized football pitches and an outdoor gym.
Beckenham Place Park, Beckenham
Beckenham Place Park was also awarded a Gold Award for the Large Park category at this year’s awards.
The park additionally received an award for Apprentice Scheme of the Year.
The park boasts 96 hectares of land that has retained its current appearance for hundreds of years and houses several historical listed buildings.
It has a wide variety of gardens and outdoor spaces, from woodland areas and wildflower meadows to formal landscaped gardens, as well as two ponds, a lake and links to the River Ravensbourne.
In the assessor’s comments, they said: “The success of the strong partnership between the Friends, Local Authority and the Landscape contractor at Forster Park was evident in many areas.”
Devonshire Road Nature Reserve, Honor Oak
Devonshire Road Nature Reserve was crowned a Gold Winner for Small Conservation Area in this year’s London in Bloom Awards.
The nature reserve forms part of the railway cutting running between Forest Hill and New Cross Gate stations, providing natural habitats for urban wildlife.
A lot of the ancient woodland trees were cut back after the 1800s, but since then new trees have been planted in the last 170 years to introduce new arboreal landscapes.
Today the nature reserve features three meadowed areas which grow wildflowers to attract local wildlife, as well as several ponds around the visitor centre.
The nature reserve is open to the public on the last Sunday of every month from 1pm-5pm.
The assessor wrote: “Devonshire Road Nature Reserve was a wonderful site and I can’t wait to go back, but this time with my family.”
Silver Award Winners
Brockmill Park, St Johns
Originally a small recreation ground dating back to 1880, Brockmill Park was later extended in 1953 to celebrate the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II.
Today, the park has a number of features including an ornamental garden, lake, children’s play area and a natural area running alongside the River Ravensbourne.
Frendsbury Gardens, Honor Oak
Frendsbury Gardens was crowned a Silver Gilt winner in the category of Small Parks.
The gardens and parkland is located a short walk from Brockley and serves as a community space cared for by locals.
According to Lewisham Council the park was once a “wasteland” and a prominent spot for fly-tippers, until local residents worked to turn the space into a community garden.
With the support of Lewisham Council and lottery funding the gardens were turned in a community garden space and a haven for local wildlife.
Today the gardens are regularly loved by volunteers with the support of Glendale. Weekly sessions are also run by volunteers, giving locals the chance to help maintain the popular greenspace.
Cllr James-J Walsh, Cabinet Member for Communications, Culture and Leisure said: “Lewisham is proud of our fantastic and award-winning parks and conservation areas – access to beautiful green spaces like ours can significantly improve both physical and mental health and wellbeing for our residents, engender pride in our neighbourhoods and help elevate Lewisham's profile as the best place in London to live, work and learn.
“Many thanks to our wonderful Friends’ groups and all our community volunteers across the borough, to our brilliant Parks team and our excellent partners Glendale, all of whom work tirelessly to ensure our green spaces are continually rated amongst the very best."
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