Improvement work under way at Beckenham Place Park East Side

Work on a raft of improvements has started at Beckenham Place Park East Side, focusing on the Downham side of the railway line.

After extensive consultation with the community, Lewisham Council is improving the quality of play, recreation, health and wellbeing opportunities for residents, particularly those living near this part of the park in Downham and Bellingham.

The improvement works will increase biodiversity and rewilding whilst bringing significant flood and climate resilience benefits to the area.

There will be increased community volunteering opportunities for local people with the improvements to the river corridor.

The new works to the park will include:

• Extensive new landscaping, new planting and rewilding of the east side of the park with lowland meadows and wildlife-rich ponds with space to accommodate stormwater to reduce flood risk.

• New playground and multi-use game area.

• An improved main entrance from Old Bromley Road.

• Improvements to the river corridor and increased community volunteering opportunities.

• New/improved footpaths and wayfinding.

• Activity trail and off-road cycling trail and outdoor gym to support health and fitness.

• New park café opportunity with publicly accessible toilets.

The full programme of work will last for around one year, with regular updates published on the Beckenham Place Park web pagebeckenhamplacepark.com

Occasional pathway suspensions and diversions will be required during the works and the playground in this part of the park will be closed for a period of time whilst the new play facilities are being built.

Environmental charity Thames21 is working as part of the project to encourage the involvement of local people to learn more and actively enjoy contributing to their park and local river – the River Ravensbourne. This river is a tributary of the River Thames and runs through part of the park. Although it is a place of beauty, it can suffer from many challenges, including road and plastic pollution.

T Loughman & Co is the main contractor delivering the park works and has a proven track record of successfully delivering park and river regeneration and restoration schemes.

Landscape architects from BDP have been involved from the initial conceptual design stage and are taking the project through to completion.

Beckenham Place Park is the largest green space in the borough, covering 98 hectares. It contains large areas of ancient woodland and is a beautiful and peaceful location providing vital green space and activities for residents, improving both physical and mental health.

Damien Egan, Mayor of Lewisham, said: “I'm delighted that the work to improve the Bellingham and Downham side of Beckenham Place Park has begun.

“This is the final part of what's been South London's biggest new park project and it's been an incredible success.

“Since improvements to the park were made on the west side, we have seen numbers increase from 200,000 to around 1.2 million visitors every year! I look forward to seeing the changes.”