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.
A remarkable new play based on conversations with real people on the subject of regret is about to get an airing at our Longfield Hall.
No Regrets, by Gary McNair, is being performed by the Knatchbull Road venue’s Young Company next Friday and Saturday. The play is the result of conversations McNair had with people from all walks of life over five years.
Longfield Hall: a richly varied programme of local events
According to the Longfield, the play is “a collection of scenes from the silly to the profound, that charts our relationship with the things we should have done but didn’t and the things we shouldn’t have done, but did.”
No Regrets, performed as part of the National Theatre Connections Festival, is also being staged elsewhere. It contains swearing and depictions of violence. More details, including performance times, here.
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.”
The historic Minet Library in Myatt’s Fields is set to benefit from a major share of new money from Lambeth Council.
The library, which dates from the late nineteenth century, will enjoy an extensive refurbishment, including improved electrical and heating systems, renewed shelving and other furniture, and upgraded PCs.
Other improvements will include more spaces for hire and enhancements to audio loops, as well as health-check machines and better soundproofing in event rooms. A total of £1.7 million will be spent on Minet and other libraries in the borough, part of the Council’s commitment to ensure libraries are at the heart of Lambeth’s communities.
This significant investment ensures they remain fit for the future, offering not just books and learning resources, but also vital community spaces for events, technology access, and personal development.
Local councillors Paul Gadsby and Annie Gallop welcomed the refurbishment, saying:
“This is a long overdue refurbishment to this much valued local institution. We are pleased the Council has listened to our calls for this funding.”
Local Labour councillors have welcomed a new consultation on the future of the empty Charles Edward Brook school in Cormont Road.
The building has been empty since 2019 and has fallen into disrepair, prompting local people to launch a ‘Stop the Rot’ campaign to save it from further damage. Now Lambeth Council – which is now responsible for the heritage site – is asking ‘local schools and other interested parties’ for their views on its future.
The consultation, which is limited to proposed possible loss of the long unused playing fields within the site and is required by law, is the first formal step to decide the future of the building.
Local councillors Annie Gallop and Paul Gadsby have been pressing the council to work with the community and take urgent action to prevent the local landmark from degenerating further. They said:
“This is a first step along what is likely to be a long road which might result in the school becoming homes.
“But we continue to press for wider consultation keeping the wishes of local communities at the forefront of the debate”
The beautiful building is in poor repair in part because the Department of Education delayed transferring ownership to the Council for a number of years. It’s estimated that work to simply stop its condition worsening may cost up to £1.9 million, which the Authority claims it cannot fund on its own.
Lambeth Council should work with the community to put the vacant Cormont School building in Myatt’s Fields back into use, according to local councillors.
The condition of the beautiful former Charles Edward Brook school has declined considerably since it became vacant in 2019, in part because the Department of Education delayed transferring ownership to the Council for a number of years.
Last year Myatts Field’s councillors Paul Gadsby and Annie Gallop received a commitment that the council would begin work to assess the future of the school and involve the community in deciding its future.
In a question to Lambeth’s Full Council meeting last month, Cllr Gadsby asked the Cabinet Member for Housing for an update amid growing community concern:
“The Charles Edward Brook site in Myatt’s Fields has been empty for some time after being handed over in a poor and declining state by the Conservative government. Can I ask the Cabinet Member for an update on the future of this building as local councillors are keen, as is the community, that the building is put back into use as soon as possible?“
In a lengthy response – which can be read here – the Council confirmed that officers were coming up with a strategy to develop the building for residential use. However, the council says there are significant hurdles, including the poor state of repair of the heritage site, and the likely exorbitant cost of simply making the building safe and preventing further damage – estimated at between £1.4 and £1.9 million which the authority says it cannot afford..
Cllrs Gadsby and Gallop said:
“The Charles Edward Brooke School building has been left vacant for far, far too long. The building needs to be both put back into use and restored to its former architectural glory. It is encouraging the council have carried out feasibility studies, including drone surveys, and it has to be acknowledged that there are financial hurdles which are made more difficult by more than a decade of economic chaos by the recently departed, but not missed, Tory government. However, we are calling on Lambeth to pick up the pace and make a call on the future of the building, in partnership with the local community.”
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 