Burgess Park is a public park situated in Camberwell in the London Borough of Southwark. It is close to Walworth to the north, Bermondsey to the east and Peckham to the south. At 56 hectares (140 acres), it is one of the largest parks in South London. [1]
Unlike most other parks in London, Burgess Park was carved out of a highly built-up area of the city. Virtually all the land now occupied by the park was previously used for housing, industry and transport infrastructure.
Houses were purchased and demolished to form the park. The idea for Burgess Park came out of the 1943 Abercrombie plan for open spaces in London, and the land has been gradually assembled and landscaped over the subsequent decades, first by the London County Council, then the Greater London Council, and since the mid-1980s, the London Borough of Southwark. The earliest component of what is now Burgess Park pre-dates the Abercrombie Plan. This is the King George's Field, opened in 1938 on the site of a former baths and swimming pool, at the Addington Square end of the park. [2]
The early stages of the expansion of the park led to the incorporation of the North Camberwell Open Space in 1965. That open space included the churchyard of St George's, Camberwell, which had been designed by Francis Bedford in 1824. The churchyard had ceased to be used for burials in 1856. In 1886 it was acquired as a public open space by the Metropolitan Public Gardens Association and laid out as a public garden with funds provided by Viscountess Ossington. Catherine Gladstone opened the garden in 1887. After the churchyard was incorporated into the North Camberwell Open Space, it was re-landscaped in 1966. However, the church closed in 1970 and was allowed to become derelict. When the church was adapted to private housing in 1994, most of the garden was allowed to become a private garden. [3]
An important stage in the construction of the park was the closure of the Grand Surrey Canal in the early 1970s, which terminated at Addington Wharf on Camberwell Road. The canal served the Surrey Commercial Docks, and the area near Camberwell was full of 19th-century streets, houses and industrial buildings (including an R White's ginger beer factory and the Watkins Bible Factory [4] ), many of which had suffered heavy bomb damage during WWII. The stretch of canal now incorporated in the park is the site of Camberwell Wharf, which was virtually straight. Other land incorporated in the park was occupied by housing.
Named Burgess Park in 1973 (after Councillor Jessie Burgess, Camberwell's first female Mayor), it is still incomplete and contains some former roads which have been stopped up but not yet grassed over. The boundaries of Burgess Park remain a matter of dispute, and because the park is unfinished, it is regularly the subject of proposals [ citation needed ] to build housing, schools, or transport links of the sort that would never be contemplated in one of London's older parks of Victorian origin.
There are a large number of listed buildings in the Park, remnants of the streets which once occupied the site: an early 19th century lime kiln, [5] the Passmore Edwards library, baths and wash houses (the piers and railings of which are separately listed) [6] [7] and the former almshouses in Chumleigh Gardens (which have three separate listings). [8] [9] [10] The whole of the Passmore Edwards building was listed as an asset of community value in 2014. The adjacent former church of St George designed by Bedford, now converted into flats, is also listed; some parts of its former churchyard form part of the park. [11] Its war memorial of Christ, head bowed, holding a crown of thorns, by the Danish artist Arild Rosenkrantz, is also listed. [12]
The library, baths and wash houses are occupied by the Lynn AC boxing club [13] and formerly by a theatre group Theatre Delicatessen. [14] An external wall has a large mosaic of a Camberwell Beauty butterfly. The almshouses are occupied by offices and by a café. There are also several bridges, which once used to cross the canal.
Chumleigh Gardens, near the centre of the park, is a World Garden, with plants and landscaping designed to reflect the diversity of the surrounding population of this highly cosmopolitan portion of London. It was established in 1995, in the grounds of the former Female Friendly Society Asylum. [15]
Recent additions to the park include Silent Raid, an art installation by Sally Hogarth commemorating Zeppelin raids on the local area in 1917 [16] and a memorial to locally-born Jack Harvey VC. [17]
There is a thriving Friends of Burgess Park who also have an online heritage project on the park, Bridge To Nowhere. In the past, the park has played host to many festivals, including, in August, the Carnaval Del Pueblo, Europe's largest celebration of Latin American culture.
In 2009, Burgess Park was one of 11 parks throughout Greater London chosen to receive money for redevelopment by a public vote. The park received a grant of £2 million from Boris Johnson, Mayor of London, as part of a London-wide competition, and the money was used to install better footpaths, additional lighting, refurbished public toilets and new play areas for children. [18] Subsequent plans existed to top this up to £6 million by Southwark Council, to ensure the renovation of the space.
Peckham BMX Club are based in the park and has trained several world-class riders including Olympic medallist Kye Whyte. [19]
Other facilities include: tennis courts, football pitches, a rugby field (winter) / cricket oval (summer), a bbq area, a sports centre, a nursery, a community art project, Art in the Park, a local rugby club, Southwark Tigers, and two playgrounds. [20] The park hosts a Saturday morning 5 km ParkRun. [21]
Camberwell is an area of South London, England, in the London Borough of Southwark, 2+3⁄4 miles southeast of Charing Cross.
The London Borough of Southwark in South London forms part of Inner London and is connected by bridges across the River Thames to the City of London and London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It was created in 1965 when three smaller council areas amalgamated under the London Government Act 1963. All districts of the area are within the London postal district. It is governed by Southwark London Borough Council.
Peckham is a district in south-east London, within the London Borough of Southwark. It is 3.5 miles (5.6 km) south-east of Charing Cross. At the 2001 Census the Peckham ward had a population of 14,720.
Walworth is a district of south London, England, within the London Borough of Southwark. It adjoins Camberwell to the south and Elephant and Castle to the north, and is 1.9 miles (3.1 km) south-east of Charing Cross.
East Dulwich is an area of South East London, England in the London Borough of Southwark. It forms the eastern part of Dulwich, with Peckham to the east and Camberwell to the north. East Dulwich is home to the Dog Kennel Hill statue which is lit in the snow. This South London suburb was first developed in the nineteenth century on land owned by the College of God's Gift.
Camberwell was a civil parish and metropolitan borough in south London, England. Camberwell was an ancient parish in the county of Surrey, governed by an administrative vestry from 1674. The parish was included in the area of responsibility of the Metropolitan Board of Works in 1855 and became part of the County of London in 1889. The parish of Camberwell became a metropolitan borough in 1900, following the London Government Act 1899, with the parish vestry replaced by a borough council. In 1965 the borough was abolished and its former area became part of the London Borough of Southwark in Greater London.
Old Kent Road is a major thoroughfare in South East London, England, passing through the London Borough of Southwark. It was originally part of an ancient trackway that was paved by the Romans and used by the Anglo-Saxons who named it Wæcelinga Stræt. It is now part of the A2, a major road from London to Dover. The road was important in Roman times linking London to the coast at Richborough and Dover via Canterbury. It was a route for pilgrims in the Middle Ages as portrayed in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, when Old Kent Road was known as Kent Street. The route was used by soldiers returning from the Battle of Agincourt.
Nunhead is a suburb in the London Borough of Southwark in London, England. It is an inner-city suburb located 4 miles (6.4 km) southeast of Charing Cross. It is the location of the 52-acre (0.21 km2) Nunhead Cemetery. Nunhead has traditionally been a working-class area and, with the adjacent neighbourhoods, is currently going through a lengthy process of gentrification. Nunhead is the location of several underground reservoirs, built by the Southwark and Vauxhall Waterworks Company.
Camberwell and Peckham is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since its 1997 creation by Harriet Harman of the Labour Party. Harman had served for the previous constituency of Peckham since 1982. She is a former cabinet minister and the "Mother of the House of Commons", having the longest record of continuous service of any female MP.
The London Borough of Southwark, occupying a roughly triangular area south of Tower Bridge over the River Thames, considers itself to be one of the greenest boroughs in London, with its 245 hectares of public parkland. There are more than 130 such green areas, ranging from the large areas around Dulwich and Southwark Park in Rotherhithe to the many sports grounds and squares. The main ones are:
The Livesey Museum for Children was in the Old Kent Road, within the London Borough of Southwark, London, England.
Peckham was a borough constituency in South London which returned one Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Elections were held using the first-past-the-post voting system.
Peckham Rye is an open space and road in the London Borough of Southwark in London, England. The roughly triangular open space lies to the south of Peckham town centre. It is managed by Southwark Council and consists of two contiguous areas, with Peckham Rye Common to the north and Peckham Rye Park to the south. The road Peckham Rye forms the western and eastern perimeter of the open space.
Myatt's Fields Park is a 14-acre Victorian park in Camberwell in the London Borough of Lambeth in South London, England, 2.9 miles south-east of Charing Cross.
Addington Square is a Georgian and Regency garden square in Camberwell in the London Borough of Southwark which is named after the early 19th century prime minister Henry Addington.
Maurice Bingham Adams FRIBA (1849–1933) was a British architect in the Arts and Crafts style.
The Metropolitan Public Gardens Association is a charity in London for the purposes of the preservation of public parks and gardens, established in 1882. It facilitated the creation of new public open spaces, including from philanthropic landowners within its membership. The MPGA was involved in the formation and development of other amenity organisations. The charity still exists; in recent decades its emphasis has changed to smaller parcels of land and smaller projects within larger spaces, as well as to themed projects. The MPGA was the starting point for the careers of the ground-breaking female landscape gardeners Fanny Wilkinson and Madeline Agar.
Brunswick Park is a 4-acre (1.6 ha) public park located in Camberwell, in South East London, and is managed by the London Borough of Southwark. Originally a private square, the park was opened to the public in 1907.
51°29′01″N0°04′55″W / 51.483576°N 0.081841°W
