A look back at 2021 – part I
It’s the end of the year and like many people, we’re in a reflective mood. There’s so much to celebrate from the past year that we’ve split this review into two parts: Part I focuses on the park, nature and community projects. Part II gathers highlights from 2021 by the businesses that operate within Beckenham Place Park.
INTRODUCTION
We’re proud to be a Lewisham park. Lewisham’s parks topped the table in the recently published ‘Good Parks for London Report 2021’. The achievement recognises the quality of Lewisham’s parks including Beckenham Place Park.
Despite another year of pandemic related disruption, BPP continued to offer a varied programme for the local community and beyond. With so much to offer, it is estimated that BPP attracted well over 1 million visitors this year.
As the end of 2021 nears, the Beckenham Place Park team have gathered some highlights of the year that was…
EVENTS
In 2021 BPP had its busiest programme ever and welcomed a variety of events from open-air screening and theatre to multiple markets and its largest events, three music festivals in September.
CONSERVATION
Butterfly project
The BPP volunteers played a vital role in this new conservation project which aims to improve the biodiversity of the park.
Birds of prey
For the second year running, Hobbies nested in the park. These beautiful falcons breed in the UK from April onwards, migrating to Africa in early autumn to overwinter. They enjoy feasting on dragonflies and swifts, and there are plenty of these over the lake in the park in the summer months as both species feed on midges and other insects that live around bodies of water. It’s amazing how quickly a whole new food chain has developed since the lake was completed in 2019.
Bee Hive
Since May 2021, we have had a honey bee hive in Beckenham Place Park! The colony was formed from a swarm that was rescued in the park and is tended to by a group of about 7 volunteers under the calm, knowledgeable supervision of Peter, a local beekeeper and now park volunteer.
You can read about why Peter offered to give up his time to help us set up a colony in the park here. The colony was too small to produce excess honey that we could extract this year, but we hope to be able to next year. The bees have a wonderful range of flowers to feast on in the formal gardens and also lots of ivy flowers, which are an important nectar source in the Autumn months. Thank you to everyone involved in looking after the buzzy bees!
VOLUNTEERING
In 2021, despite volunteering being suspended for Covid lockdowns until late March, and then allowed but only with limited numbers per session, local people have given up a whopping 4900 hours to volunteer at Beckenham Place Park. This equates to nearly 700 working days! This is quite phenomenal and shows how much BPP means to so many people.
These figures don’t include projects that aren’t run or overseen by Lewisham Council. If the volunteer hours from activities such as parkrun and the National Childbirth Trust’s walks and talks were added, it would be even higher. Plus, the recording of volunteering hours is notoriously difficult to do accurately as various people volunteer independently and often unbeknown to us. For example, we have some regular “ploggers” (people who go litter picking and jogging at the same time), bird-watching enthusiasts who undertake regular surveys, people who litter pick when on dog walks or out walking. The time they give to the park informally and independently is in addition to what we have recorded here.
This year the community garden (around Gardener’s Cottage) has been donating the fresh produce grown by volunteers to Downham Gleaning Pantry, a volunteer-run project which was set up in the first lockdown to provide food to families struggling to buy enough food. We are proud of how much we have donated. You can see what and how much of each type of food in the graph below
COMMUNITY PROJECTS
Our Park youth project
“Our Park” is a film and youth engagement project that has been running throughout 2021 in conjunction with Ciaran from Renegade Production, a local independent production house. The project has included visits to the park by local residents who attend the Young Lewisham Project. On these visits, the young people have cycled in the woods, used BMX bikes on the track, helped with gardening in the community garden, and met volunteers and lifeguards over lunch in the Mansion. All the while being followed around by Ciaran and his camera! We look forward to being able to share the film publicly around Easter 2022.
Humans of BPP
The park’s first-ever photography competition, #HumansofBPP, was a great success. It ran on Instagram throughout 2021 and received over 165 entries. A winner and 5 runners up were chosen for each season and their photos are on display in the Homestead Courtyard until the end of January 2022.
The photos really do celebrate the park, its diverse visitors and the many different activities and events that draw people to BPP. On 9th December, we held a private view and prize giving. 53 people attended, including Councillor Patrick Codd, Cabinet Member for Environment & Transport, who spoke about the importance of BPP and all Lewisham parks to residents, especially over the last 2 years, and awarded the prizes to the winning photographers.
Fatma Keeley, the photographer behind Smiley Huseyin Photography, volunteered her time throughout the year to help run the competition and was busily snapping away at the private view to record the evening’s events. It was a heart-warming evening, full of community spirit and it was so lovely to see park users coming together over their shared love of the park and of photography. Homestead Café pizzas and hot drinks rounded the evening off nicely!
#LoveBeckenhamPlacePark
In May we held our first community day, showcasing 18 local organisations relevant to the park, and encouraging local residents from Downham and Bellingham to try new activities in the park or to visit the park for the first time.
Health Walk volunteers offered a trial Nordic Walking session, local forest school practitioners offered free nature crafts, the local RSPB group came and talked to people about nature and birds in the park, Tea Dance for Little People ran storytelling walks (linked to the ‘Adventure Story Maps’ that are available to download for free) and Dr Bike Lewisham serviced over 40 bikes – many more than he would usually service at such an event. Lewisham Cyclists led two guided cycle rides to the event, and PTP Coaching offered free taster paddleboarding sessions all day, which were fully booked.
The event was a great success, especially given it was first to face to face community event in the park post-lock downs. Visitor feedback was all positive and we plan to repeat the event on a larger scale in 2022. The day couldn’t have run without the help of over 30 volunteers, not to mention all of the people running stalls for their organisations.
Winter workshops
On Friday 3 December, 15 local residents were treated to a morning of Winter Workshops at the Mansion.
The Winter Workshops were run in lieu of the large, public Festival of Lights event which has run in the Mansion since 2017. The Festival couldn’t take place in 2020 owing to Covid-19, and with uncertainty over what restrictions would be in place in December 2021, the team at the Mansion and the Lewisham Council team at BPP decided it would be safer to plan a small, invitation-only event this year. It was a huge success and everyone involved, from organisers to attendees, felt uplifted by being part of such a lovely community event. Thank you to everyone who made the Winter Workshops possible and so lovely!
PROJECT IMPROVEMENTS
The Heritage Lottery funding for improvements to the west side of the park is coming to an end and all the work from the last 5 years has put Beckenham Place Park in good stead for a bright, sustainable future. This year this has included much of the community and volunteering work mentioned above, plus the installation of 10 more bike racks in the park, located by the lake. Bollards were installed along Stumps Hill to protect grass from car parking and a new website (the one you’re reading right now!) was launched, providing an authoritative destination for visitors.
The Eastside project is also progressing, with funding applications looking promising. We look forward to bringing the east and west side of the park together in the coming years.
WHAT ARE YOUR HIGHLIGHTS?
What is your favourite BPP memory of 2021?
What are you looking forward to in 2022?
What would you like to see in BPP in 2022?
Let us know on social media use hashtag #loveBPP