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.”
Plans have been unveiled to convert a row of shops on Brixton Road into a block of short-term lets, targeted at what developers call “young renters”.
The “co-living” approach involves residents renting a small apartment while sharing other facilities, including communal areas.
If it proceeds, the plan would see the row of shops at 274-280 Brixton Road rebuilt and converted into a total of 95 rooms, aimed at renters aged between 18 and 40. The new block would also include space for a cafe and other community facilities.
This is the second “co-living’ plan to be unveiled in our area – in February, developers consulted on a similar scheme on the corner of Cancell Road and Eliott Road.
The proposed site on the corner of Robsart Rd
In an invitation to the consultation, Siddo Dwyer, who represents the developers KMP Group – a local company founded in Streatham – said: “Our proposals seek to transform and rebuild an underutilised high street shopfront into an accessibly priced co-living scheme of 95 rooms, featuring large communal facilities, a concierge service, and opportunities to deliver social value through partnerships with local groups, including potential use of a dedicated community space.
“We are aware of the pressing housing challenges faced by Brixton and wider London, where many—particularly young people and some mature professionals—struggle to find secure and affordable accommodation. The co-living concept offers a flexible and affordable alternative, while also fostering a sense of community for its residents.”
The developers have arranged two public displays as part of the consultation process and have published more details here.
Date: Thursday 3rd April Time: 4pm – 7pm Location: The Hall, St John’s Angell Town Church, 49 Wiltshire Road, London, SW9 7NE Date: Saturday 5th April Time: 11am – 2pm Location: The Hall, St John’s Angell Town Church, 49 Wiltshire Road, London, SW9 7NE
A group which works to save children and young people in Myatt’s Fields from educational failure and other effects of social problems is the big winner in a list of cash awards worth almost a quarter of a million pounds, announced by Lambeth council.
XLP, which supports young people in Lambeth facing challenges like family breakdown, unemployment, and educational failure, often in areas impacted by antisocial behaviour and gang violence, will get £156,814.
The organisation, which works alongside bodies including St Gabriel’s School in Myatt’s Fields, focuses on creating positive futures through long-term relationships and belief in change, regardless of background. Initiatives include a school exclusion reduction programme, mentoring, sports and arts and a mobile youth centre. Read about XLP here.
Three other local community projects are celebrating their share of the combined windfall from the Borough’s Community Connections fund.
Breath Arts Health Research — £77,000. Breath are world leaders in combining creativity and scientific research to improve health and wellbeing in communities. The Melodies for Mums programme aims to support new mothers in Brixton and Stockwell experiencing postnatal depression or low mood. This free, 10-week group singing initiative, delivered in local community settings including the Liz Atkinson Children’s Centre, has been proven to improve mental health, boost confidence, and strengthen social connections. More details here.
Longfield Hall Trust — £10,000. The famous local landmark bid will receive the funding injection to help continue it’s work in the community: read about the Hall’s work here.
The Remakery – £9,995. This renowned sustainability organisation which includes a collection of workshops and community space in Lilford Rd will use the grant to support its ongoing community outreach work. Read more about this project here
Community Connections encourages initiatives set up to make our borough fairer and safer — more details can be found here.
Cllr Annie Gallop and Cllr Paul Gadsby said:
“It’s great to see Lambeth stepping in and putting our cash where it’s going to have a significant effect on the lives of many vulnerable people. We’re also please to see big financial boosts for organisations which have been working to improve lives in our neighbourhoods for many years.”
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!”
Myatt’s Fields councillors have confirmed their public surgeries for 2025, including a change to the first surgery of the new year.
As in 2024, Myatt’s Fields Labour councillors will hold a regularly monthly surgery (apart from in August) at Longfield Hall on the first Thursday of each month, between 6pm and 7pm. Either Cllr Gadsby or Cllr Gallop will be on hand, accompanied by support volunteers, to speak to residents about any local issue they might have. No appointments are necessary!
Residents can also contact councillors at this page.
The schedule for 2025 is below: the councillors have opted to move the first surgery of the new year to the second Thursday in January to avoid a clash with the start of the year.
Surgery details for 2025 (all held at Longfield Hall, 50 Knatchbull Road, London, SE5 9QY between 6pm and 7pm)
An exciting drama programme at Longfield Hall and multisports and crafts at Myatt’s Fields North community centre are just some of dozens of activities planned during the borough council-organised Winter of Food and Fun, which runs from Monday December 23rd to Friday January 3rd.
The programme is aimed at children between four and 16 years who are eligible for benefits-related free school meals. Each club will provide free healthy meals, fun physical activities to suit all tastes and ages, as well as opportunities for the family to learn about food and nutrition.
A flyer is being distributed around our neighbourhoods — you can find it here. More about the project, funded with cash from the Department for Education, is here.
A Government minister has weighed in on Myatt’s Fields Labour councillors’ call for better powers to deal with the ‘blight’ of e-bikes and e-scooters left strewn across our pavements and open spaces.
Councillors Paul Gadsby and Annie Gallop wrote to Simon Lightfoot MP, Minister for Local Transport, urging the government to help Lambeth council deal with the problem, following representations from local people.
Now Mr Lightfoot has replied, thanking the councillors for their comments and assuring them that he was aware of the issue, in Lambeth and in the rest of London.
In their letter sent earlier this month, Cllrs Gallop and Cllr Gadsby urged tighter regulatory powers in the face of a growing problem from “dockless” e-bikes and scooters.
Residents in Myatt’s Fields have complained about public spaces in the ward being used to abandon the vehicles, creating an eyesore and blocking pavements – a particular nuisance for our neighbours with mobility issues.
In his reply, Mr Lightfoot said he agreed with the councillors’ view that so-called “micro-mobility” schemes can benefit many users and contribute to our environmental targets.
However. he said: “I am particularly conscious that while pavement obstructions caused by poorly parked e-bikes are an inconvenience to many, they present a serious safety risk to vulnerable pavement users such as those with mobility issues or visual impairments.”
He went on: “On e-scooters specifically, until any legislative changes are brought forward and come into effect, private e-scooters remain illegal to use on public roads, cycle lanes and pavements, and rental e-scooters can only be used in national rental e-scooter trial areas. Enforcement of illegal and/or irresponsible e-scooter use is a matter for the police. Users can face fines and fixed penalty notices, criminal prosecution, points on their driving licence, and have their e-scooter impounded.
“As you will appreciate, the new government is still in its early stages, and I am still carefully considering the future of micromobility policy, including on shared micromobility rental schemes and e-scooters”.
He said he was grateful to the councillors for getting in touch with him as he considers action – “Your distillation of the specific nature of the problem in London and your recommendations for suggested action will be of great help as I do this”, he said.
Separately, Lambeth has proposed a big expansion of bays for dockless bikes – some of them in Myatt’s Fields – but has emphasised that users should act responsibly and refrain from leaving the vehicles in inconvenient places.
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.”
Myatt's Fields Labour 