The organisers of the proposed event in Brockwell Park this June, Field Day, have asked to meet with objectors. At this meeting and other opportunities, including the Licence Application meeting on April 4th , we will reiterate our ‘redlines’. These are:
Join us for an early start on 15 April in beautiful Brockwell Park for a guided walk, led by RSPB Central London Group. At 6am, we will walk round part of the park to see what birds are about and listen to their songs and calls. We expect to hear song and mistle thrushes, blackbirds, robins, goldfinches, greenfinches, chaffinches, great tits and blue tits, to name a few. Other possibilities include great spotted woodpecker, nuthatch and blackcap. We’ll also see several species of water birds at the ponds.
We have been given permission to enter the park before it opens to the public, and there should be a special peaceful atmosphere at this time. We will start the walk at 6am and we expect it to last for one and a half to two hours. (A nearby cafe opens at 8am if anyone fancies a well-earned coffee!)
The leaders of the walk will be Czech Conroy and Graeme Hutchinson, two members of this RSPB group’s Executive Committee. They both live locally.
Buses 3, 196, 68, 468 and 37 all stop nearby. If coming by car, you’ll probably have to park in a side street nearby.
Meet at the Herne Hill Gate entrance to the park on 15 April at 6am. This gate will be opened temporarily just for this walk. However, please note that the other park gates will be shut until the normal opening time of 6.30am. The event is free although donations to the park are always welcome. Do bring a pair of binoculars if you possess them.
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.
‘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.’
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.
Did you receive this letter to attend a meeting on Monday 20 November at 7pm at Herne Hill Baptist Church?
It’s from Field Day about the festival of the same name in the park in 2018. Everyone is free to go along to ask questions and hear about the plans. You don’t need an invite!
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.
We are firing up our cob oven, and rolling out our dough! Book your £2.50 Pizza Ticket now!
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
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.
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.
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.
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
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
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 19th 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.
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.
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.
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.’