Author: Madeleine

There’s a packed programme in Brockwell Park Greenhouses this autumn and winter. Here’s a guest post from director, Kate Sebag, about the events you can take part in:

All year we’ve been growing Ginger plants in our lower greenhouse. Now it’s time to celebrate all things Ginger and our Ginger Fete next Saturday 16th September from 2pm to 5pm is set to be a giant Ginger Tea Party – a celebration of all things Ginger. There’ll be Gingery edibles, Gingery stories and Gingery facepainting and plenty of games and crafts.  To secure tickets, and to help us know how many ginger bread men to bake, do book in advance.

Sunday Pizzas September 24 @ 12:45 pm – 2:30 pm – sold out
Sunday Pizzas October 15 @ 12:45 am – 2:30 pm – last chance this year

We are firing up our cob oven, and rolling out our dough! Book your £2.50 Pizza Ticket now!

ADULT WORKSHOPS

Chris’ Border Workshop building gardening confidence runs for 12 sessions over a year and is now in its third season. Participants can plan their own garden space and then grow plants for it whilst learning what to do each month by working on the Hot! border. This year we will be focussing on a palette of 100 super reliable perennials. Places are limited so book your place now

Year 3 Designing and Maintaining an Ornamental Border
October 15 @ 10:00 am – 1:00 pm

Our Ginger House exhibition was built and grown by a dedicated Ginger Group of volunteers. Next year’s exhibition is to be Gorgeous Gourds and the Gorgeous Group will help to turn the greenhouse to be a jungle of gourds. This is a workshop for practical, creative people who want to join a group to build something special. This workshop is also taking place once per month over an entire year. Places are strictly limited for this popular series so book now.

Gorgeous Group
October 22 @ 10:00 am – 1:00 pm

Demijohn Terrarium Workshop October 7 @ 1:15 pm – 3:00 pm

Come and join Jar and Fern at the Greenhouses to make your own Demijohn Terrarium. This is a Paid for Workshop. Book with Jar and Fern.

British Native Aquatic and Bog Planting September 24 @ 10:30 am – 12:30 pm

Learn more about British native bog and aquatic plants from Paul Richens. Using the planting from around our own pond and talking from his wide experience, Paul will give us many insights into the wonderful world of pond plants. This is a free workshop, thanks to Western Riverside Environmental Fund.

Screen Printing at the Greenhouses September 27 @ 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm

Nicole Line is holding a Screen Printing Workshop at the Greenhouses in late September. Nicole teaches at the University for the Creative Arts and has been running workshops since 2014. For more details and to book go here

MUSIC GIG

Gig@the Greenhouses – Oysland Band October 8 @ 4:00 pm – 5:00 pm

Top-notch contemporary Klezmer! Seven-piece band, Oysland, embody the new generation of Yiddish roots music, serving up an exuberant and soulful cocktail of wedding songs and lamenting lullabies. £7 Tickets (£5 concessions) available here  direct from the Herne Hill Festival

OUTDOOR LEARNING AND PLAY FOR CHILDREN

Our new natural play kitchen is open from Thursday to Sunday 10 – 5 with a mud kitchen, willow wigwam, welly boot planters and much more natural play kit.

Story Stompers, a New Weekly Club for 2 to 4 year olds launches on Tuesday September 19^th 9.15am to 10.15am. Join us for storytelling with Helen Tozer, explore the gardens and enjoy natural play and craft, whatever the weather!  £4 child, £2.50 concessions.
Booking www.brockwellgreenhouses.org.uk/events

September storytelling for under 5s September 15 @ 11:00 am – 12:00 pm

Tis the season for harvesting. Come down to the garden and see what might be ready to eat and enjoy some tasty tales whilst you’re here! Free event but please book a space.

October storytelling for under 5s October 20 @ 11:00 am – 12:00 pm

How are the animals in the garden preparing for winter? Come along, wrapped up snug, to find out and learn how you can help them. Free event but please book a space.

And….keep your eyes open on our website for our exciting series of Friendly Bacteria Workshops for Children that we will be running during October Half Term.

We’d love to see you soon.

With best wishes

Kate

 

The Friends of Brockwell Park views with the greatest reluctance the taking over of our beloved park by events such as last Saturday’s (August 12) Sunfall festival. The noise generated in such a small park, so close to so many dwelling houses, can be intolerable to the local community. And we believe the shutting down of a huge swathe of the park to public access for nearly two weeks is too high a price to pay for any income these events generate.

 The fact that Sunfall organisers had inadequate arrangements in place to process people coming to the event, leading to huge queues, some violence and the Metropolitan Police being called does not endorse their competence in the eyes of local residents. The exit from the Park in the evening seemed almost as badly managed as the queue to get in. People were streaming out, causing huge crowds at the Brockwell Lido gate, with no stewards on hand to keep people moving or manage their exit from the Park. Outside the Park, Sunfall visitors were vomiting and urinating in local gardens.

Hundreds of nitrous oxide canisters and other rubbish covering the grass after Sunfall are not FOBP’s idea of the promised protection of Brockwell Park — and this lack of an organised litter policy again speaks to the organisers’ incompetence. The exercise platform, created at great expense for ‘the community’ was enclosed by the fencing without notice, and has been unavailable to people for at least 10 days. We cannot see how that could be justified. The much-loved model railway track, run entirely by volunteers, also sustained damage to its track ballast, while before the event had even taken place, there was an appalling churning-up of the ground just inside the Sunfall vehicle access area.

 But it has come to FOBP’s attention that Sunfall organisers, without alerting or seeking consent from Lambeth Council or Lambeth Events, ripped one park memorial bench off its granite stand. When she discovered this, its donor was in tears at the disappearance of this memorial to her brother. She is making a formal complaint.

 Another bench, commemorating a former Lambeth Mayoress, was seriously damaged during Sunfall.

These benches, gifts at significant expense of family and friends in memory of loved ones, are of considerable importance to their donors, regularly visited and cherished by them; and they are greatly appreciated by many other park users. To remove completely one bench on a whim, telling nobody, and to damage another, shows shows utter contempt for decent human standards and for the park and the council that mistakenly, it seems, hosted Sunfall

 Peter Bradley, Chair, Friends of Brockwell Park, said: ‘This is intolerable behaviour and FOBP condemns it unreservedly. We look to Sunfall to provide a speedy apology and restitution commensurate with the hurt they have imposed on the donors.’

 He continued: ‘It is London Borough of Lambeth’s official events policy to hold a number of such events in Brockwell Park a year, something FOBP has repeatedly told the Council is completely unacceptable. On the showing of this year’s Sunfall, with its chaotic internal organisation and its flagrant disrespect of the park it is privileged to occupy, FOBP believes there must be profound questions over the acceptability of ever again holding even one annual event of such a size in Brockwell Park.’

As part of our commitment to preserve Brockwell Park for everyone to enjoy, we’re canvassing views on August’s Sunfall music festival.

Now in its second year in Brockwell Park, Sunfall runs from 12:00 to 22:00 on Saturday 12 August and is billed as a ‘new festival for London’: ‘Party together by day, then continue into the night at one of our many late night club sessions.’

We’d like to hear from you if you have views and experiences relating to possible disruption. This may be noise (a concern last year), restricted access to the park, crowds or any other issues of concern before, during or after Sunfall. Please leave your comments below or use the Contact Us section of this website. Thank you.