Part of the depot in Myatt’s Fields Park into a new community hub is to be converted into a prestige new community hub.
The new facility – funded by Lambeth Council to the tune of more than £800,000 – will result in new community meeting, cooking and education spaces and provide a much-needed income stream for the park. The work follows year of hard work and lobbying from the resident-run Myatt’s Fields Park project.
The re-development plan includes demolition of the existing depot buildings and replacing them with a greener and more efficient building. The works will transform the space to create:
A 30-seater hall with a kitchen
A foyer overlooking the greenhouse and providing easy access from the street through the new building and to the park.
Office accommodation for the Park Manager
Income from hire of the new meeting space and kitchen.
The council says that redeveloping the park buildings will make the centre more visible and a more attractive hub for community activities. It will also allow the community group to nurture local enterprise.
The current park depot building.
It’s hoped that construction work will begin shortly and finish within a year. The full details can be found here.
Myatt’s Fields Labour councillors Annie Gallop and Paul Gadsby said:
“It is excellent to see this project getting off the ground: we want to pay particular tribute to the hard work of volunteers and local residents who have worked hard over many years to bring these plans to fruition.”
Dozens of young trees are appearing across our communities as part of Lambeth’s ‘urban forest’ takes root in the borough.
A total of 38 have been planted in Myatt’s Fields Park, along with 19 others spread across Chryssell Rd, Cormont Rd, Cromwell Rd, Frederick Crescent, Holland Grove, Knatchbull Rd, Loughborough Rd, Mostyn Rd and Vassall Rd.
2,056 trees have been sited across the Borough. Now, contractors are filling the watering bags at the foot of each tree. Most are equipped with a QR code allowing the public to find out about the tree’s species and environmental impact on a website.
More than 100 Lambeth residents from schools, estates, community groups, and Friends of Groups have helped to plant some of these trees in their localities. They have been positioned in streets according to the Lambeth Urban Forest Strategy areas of the borough that have fewer existing trees.
Some of Myatt’s Fields’ new trees (montage: Mark Mitchell)A label linking to the tree’s environmental impact.
Lambeth’s horticultural experts will be doing more community outreach to find more locations for the next planting season. Residents are encouraged to sign up as Tree Guardians by emailing treeguardians@lambeth.gov.uk.
Myatt’s Fields Labour team, Cllrs Annie Gallop and Paul Gadsby, said: “We are delighted that more trees are being planted across Myatt’s Fields, particularly on our estates. We will continue to lobby for more greening projects in our community”
Recently, your Labour team have also welcomed Lambeth’s other environmental initiatives, including new “rain gardens” on Myatt’s Fields South, as well as further tree planting on estates including the Cowley.
Myatt’s Fields is to benefit from the latest phase in Lambeth’s tree-planting initiative.
The Myatt’s Fields South estate is the big local winner — 30 trees are planned to be planted there.
Elsewhere, there will be 16 new plantings in Myatt’s Fields Park itself, and another in nearby Calais Gate and Coligny Court.
The council’s tree-planting target is 1700 — or more — across Lambeth this season. Four hundred have already been completed, and 182 stumps have been removed.
The council is working with both Street Trees for Living and Action for conservation to deliver planting in and around schools. Street Trees For Living are working with Lambeth Primary Schools to plant in and around their sites, whilst Action For Conservation will run a days environmental action programme with pupils from Lillian Baylis Technical College that will culminate with them collaborating with planting trees in Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens with Lambeth Tree Service and contractors Street Ltd.
Cllrs Annie Gallop and Paul Gadsby said:
“We are very happy to see more tree planting throughout Myatt’s Fields!”
Councillors have promised to monitor closely a new pilot scheme which will see Myatt’s Fields Park open to the public 24/7.
Paul Gadsby and Annie Gallop say they have heard from residents and park users worried about a possible overnight upsurge in anti-social behaviour. Others have welcomed the move because, they say, it will make the park more convenient and accessible.
For many years, the gates have been locked between dusk and 7.30am. Now the local authority has decided to — possibly temporarily — leave them open all the time.
The pilot began earlier this month and is scheduled to continue until next Summer (July 2025). The council points out that Myatt’s Fields is one of the very few open spaces in the borough to have been regularly locked overnight and that no uptick in anti-social behaviour has been experienced when other areas have been left open: recent pilots elsewhere in the borough had been “successful”, Lambeth claimed.
The council insists that cost-saving is not the main reason for the decision. In a statement — the text of which may be read here – Cllr Fred Cowell, Lambeth’s Co-Cabinet Member for Equalities, Governance and Change said three other parks in the borough had been allowed to remain open all the time in the first phase of the trial.
He said: “no increases in crime or ASB were recorded during the first phase. Following relatively positive reports from stakeholders and the police during the first phase I took the decision to move onto the second phase which involved Myatt’s Field as one of the parks in the scope of this trial.”
Cllr Cowell said that £140,000 was being spent each year locking parks but this was unlikely to represent a good use of public cash because it didn’t necessarily deter crime or vandalism.
He went on: “Crime and anti-social behaviour in parks [is] not deterred by the locking measure in isolation. It also can be counterproductive for access for policing or emergency vehicles which can actively be counterproductive to prevent crime and disorder. Furthermore, there are large parts of the year where the locking policy closed access to parks for many park users, [whose] only option for going for a run or walking their dog during the winter months is when the park has closed.”
An earlier study carried out alongside the Myatt’s Fields Park Project, which runs the open space on behalf of Lambeth, had agreed to leaving the facility permanently unlocked, he said.
“A few area-specific factors were looked [at] in relation to proceed[ing] with the unlocking of the park. These included the ongoing authorised evening use from the floodlit 3G pitch […]. This will act to some extent as a deterrent to anti-social behaviour specifically in the park.
“Current health and safety protocols require park workers to leave at least one set of gates unlocked if people refuse to leave the park at locking-up time, so there always has been access to the park through one entrance after dark. Before taking this decision, we had heard from park officers and the staff that help run Myatts Field that during the summer months it is common to leave the park unlocked.”
Cllr Cowell said the pilot is due for review in late July next year although he urged interested parties — including ward councillors and the park project — to report any concerns in the meantime.
Councillors Gallop and Gadsby said:
“We recognise that this change has worried a lot of people — not just in our ward, but also in the wider community of users. We will insist that the council closely monitor the pilot and, listening to residents and users, respond swiftly to any problems, bearing in mind that the park must be kept accessible for as many people as possible. We would encourage all residents to send any feedback on this issue, or raise any specific problems they see during the pilot’s operation, to parks@lambeth.gov.uk.”
Long-awaited refurbishment work on the children’s play area in Myatt’s Fields Park is to be carried out following pressure from your Labour team.
Local residents and visitors have highlighted an obvious decline in the much-valued part of the award-winning park, leading Myatt’s Fields councillors Paul Gadsby and Annie Gallop to press for urgent remedial action from Lambeth council.
In a public answer to a question submitted by Cllr Gadsby at October’s Lambeth Council meeting, the Council issued a statement saying:
Myatt’s Fields Park play area was last inspected on 11th September, with many small-scale tasks and improvements being commissioned by the council’s maintenance team. These will be undertaken over the next few weeks. Several play items have been removed in the past few weeks … In addition, one set of swings and the zip wire frame now need replacing. Despite the really difficult financial conditions facing local government, we are exploring capital funding to replace all these items and will look to potentially work with Myatt’s Fields Park Project, which manages the park on Lambeth’s behalf, over joint fundraising.
Cllr Paul Gadsby and Cllr Annie Gallop said:
“We want to thank every resident who got in touch about this issue, and we are pleased that immediate works are now planned to the play area. We understand that more work needs to be done, and will continue to press for further investment in this excellent children’s playspace.”
Myatt’s Fields Park’s Outdoor Stay and Play sessions, based at the Mulberry Centre, have restarted for the new term.
The organisers say they’re looking forward to welcoming four-year-olds and their parents and carers whether or not they’ve attended the free drop-in sessions in the past. Based in the fresh air of the park’s picnic area near the tennis courts, children are looked after from 9.30 to 11.30 pm during term-time.
Time is spent outdoors every day, encouraging children to learn through imaginative play, stimulated by hands-on projects, activities and experiences.
Email for More details or visit the Stay and Play website.
New measures to counter complaints about dog behaviour across Lambeth are being tabled by the borough council.
The council claims that increased pet ownership due to the pandemic has brought with it a jump in the number of reports of anti-social incidents across the area. A range of responses is being proposed, among them imposing “leads-only” policies in some public spaces, including the seating area outside the Little Cat Cafe in the park.
The cafe already asks customers to keep their dogs on leads but, if Lambeth’s proposals are enforced, owners who fail to obey new borough-wide rules may be issued with a £100 fixed-penalty notice. The regulations would also cover other areas of the park including the football pitch, the picnic area, the quiet garden and tennis courts.
On the Cowley estate dogs would be formally excluded from play areas outside Durlock, Hamway, Seasalter and Knowlton houses, as well as other playgrounds elsewhere in the Ward.
Lambeth wants to hear the public’s views before pressing ahead and has launched a consultation, which closes on March 26th.
Also included in a wide range of proposals are measures to curb dog fouling and limit the number of animals controlled by commercial dog handlers.
In a report to councillors, officers noted incidents including an attack on a child in Brockwell Park, several dog-on-dog attacks elsewhere and animals left to roam freely.
Cllr Rezina Chowdhury, Lambeth’s Cabinet Member for Sustainable Lambeth and Clean Air claimed that the proposals amounted to a “fair and reasonable” response given the increase in incidents.
Myatt’s Fields Labour councillors Paul Gadsby and Annie Gallop said:
“Most dog owners in the Ward act responsibly and it is important to encourage a pet friendly borough. We are keen to see what residents think of these proposals, especially those related to Myatt’s Fields.”
Myatt's Fields Labour 