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 residents are being asked to nominate a location for a “parklet’ – a kerbside space transformed into something for people to enjoy.
Nine parklets have already been installed across Lambeth – the borough council is rolling them out in waves and Myatt’s Fields is up next.
Supported by the borough’s Big Shift community fund, each site will have a base and surrounding barriers, although optional extras, including seating and planting areas, may be added. Each parklet is managed and maintained by community effort.
The programme is being operated under the auspices of the borough’s Kerbside Strategy and the Climate Action Plan.
A parklet in Clapham Old Town
Parklets can be applied for by residents, charities or community centres. Applicants are encouraged to read more about the project including the design guidance to ensure that their proposed location is suitable. They must also speak to their neighbours, gain support for the project and fill out the neighbourhood support form.
Lambeth Council has completed improvements to Cowley Road near the junction of Vassall Road, including cycleway improvements as well as footway and carriageway resurfacing, following lobbying by residents and councillors.
Recycled materials were used as well as methods that support and encourage biodiversity and creating healthier and safer streets for residents living in and around the local area.
Myatt’s Fields Labour councillors Annie Gallop and Paul Gadsby said: “The Community parklet scheme is a brilliant initiative to bring communities together; the seating provides an opportunity for the less mobile to get outside. Many people in Myatt’s Fields have no gardens but love plants and greenery – we look forward to seeing these spaces springing up around the Ward.”
Some of the flats in the new Patmos Lodge development will have more work done to enable better access for people with disabilities, it has been revealed.
Dozens of residents will shortly begin moving into the blocks, on the site of the old care home in Cancell Rd.
The development of 31 new homes includes social rent one and two-bedroom apartments, as well as accessible and much-needed larger family homes with three or four bedrooms and some private homes.
At a site visit, Cllr Claire Holland, who leads Lambeth Council said: “Patmos Lodge is a prime example of the high-quality, energy-efficient, sustainable, modern homes we want to provide for our residents. The new homes will meet the needs of some of the homeless families in Lambeth who desperately need a permanent place to live.
“I am delighted that over 56 residents will be moving into their new homes shortly and we are also making further modifications to the accessible homes to suit the needs of those vulnerable residents so they can also move into their new homes soon.”
Patmos Lodge has been built to high- energy efficiency standards with air-source heat pumps and solar panels included in each property.
Myatt’s Fields Labour councillor Annie Gallop — herself a disability campaigner — said: “It was great to see these beautiful new homes ready to let, all fully adaptable and very accessible. Secure tenancies build better, happier and much stronger communities”.
Cllrs Gallop and Holland at the Patmos Lodge development, with Lambeth’s deputy leader, Cllr Dan Adilypour.
Councillor Gallop, along with Cllr Paul Gadsby, have been instrumental in bringing the project to the area. Cllr Gadsby said: “I was very pleased to speak in favour of this development at Lambeth’s planning committee a number of years ago: it is incredibly important we build more council homes as part of a mix of genuinely affordable housing for our residents. More of this please!”
Cllrs Gallop and Gadsby have long campaigned for the Patmos Lodge development
Twelve homes at the Lodge are being offered for private sale, the proceeds from which will be ploughed back into providing affordable housing in Lambeth.
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!”
A tree which has died after being deliberately damaged is to be felled by the Borough council.
The Ailanthus tree, between Russell Grove and Vassall Road, was confirmed to be lifeless earlier this year. Experts say the cause of death isn’t known but there as been “determined vandalism” to the stem – shown in the picture below.
The bark has been deliberately cut through right around the tree stem, up to a height of a metre from the ground.
The tree is located on ground to the rear of houses on Russell Grove – shown in the red square below. Lambeth council says a felling notice will be placed on the tree to inform residents before it is felled this Winter. It will be replaced next Winter.
Ward Labour councillors Annie Gallop and Paul Gadsby said: “it really is pathetic that vandalism has played a part in the destruction of this tree and we would urge anyone with information to contact the Council. It is however important the Council seeks to replace the tree and that this is has already been committed to.”
Plans are afoot for a big increase in the number of roadside spaces for rental e-bikes and scooters in the borough — including some in Myatt’s Fields. The council wants to hear from residents before approving the plan which, they say, would put hire vehicles within a three-minute walk for most residents.
If the program is approved, the number of locations would rise from around 200 to 350, with four of the new sites in our ward – in Foxley Rd, Welby St, Mostyn Rd and Patmos Rd. These and others can be viewed on this map.
Some local residents have recently complained about e-bikes and scooters left strewn across pavements and public open spaces. Local Labour councillors Paul Gadsby and Annie Gallop have written to the Government minister responsible asking for councils to be given more powers to deal with the ‘blight’.
Deputy council leader Cllr Rezina Chowdhury, Cabinet Member for Sustainable Lambeth and Clean Air, said: “Lambeth Council supports the further expansion of sustainable forms of travel such as rental dockless bikes and scooters, but we also recognise the accessibility issues that parking on pavements and in high demand locations can cause.
“It’s vital that when people are finished using rental scooters and bikes, they are stored safely in one of the new dockless bays rather than abandoned on the street for the next person to use.”
Many of the new sites chosen are proposed to be installed in some of Lambeth’s busiest areas and frequent destinations to ensure that e-scooter and e-bike users can properly park their rental vehicles when they finish their journey.
The council has launched a consultation on the proposals and is asking residents to respond by visiting this portal. The consultation finishes on Friday December 6.
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.”
The Myatt’s Fields Boiler Garden project – an excellent community garden on Mostyn Road – is hosting a Spring drop in event on Saturday, 13 April at 2pm-4pm.
The event has been organised to dove tail with Incredible Edible’s family friendly walk which kicks off earlier in the afternoon (more details about this event here).
If you are interested in visiting this excellent community event, all of the details are below.
Incredible Edible Lambeth has created a new walking map linking food gardens and wellbeing sites throughout Brixton, which includes locations within Myatt’s Fields.
The organisation will launch the map on Saturday 13th April with a family friendly walk starting from Wyck Gardens Orchard at 1.30pm and ending at the Boiler Garden, on the Myatt’s South estate.
Incredibly Edible Lambeth describe the walk as “family friendly and step free, so bring your children for a walk in nature, ending with fun activities at Myatt’s Fields South Boiler Garden.” The route also takes in the award winning Myatt’s Fields Park.
The walks are funded by Transport for London and the event is funded by the National Lottery Climate Action Fund.
You can book a ticket for the event here: and a map of the walking route is below.
Myatt's Fields Labour 