Author: Chair
News from Sydenham Wells Park
Monika Mitchell, Chair of Sydenham Wells Park User Group reports on recent developments in the park.
For the seventh year we are delighted to report that Sydenham Wells Park has been awarded the coveted Green Flag status.
We have had a donation of a Monkey Puzzle tree, which has been planted in a discreet place inside the duck pond area. We have also planted a replacement Handkerchief tree within this area – the original of which died several years back – look out for the new tree in May when it will flower!
Every Tuesday Iris Humphries leads the Healthy Walks Group which meets by the duck pond in the park at 11amfor a walk around the park. If you are interested come and join in and meet the locals – everybody is welcome. The Healthy Walks group accommodates a mixture of pace so everyone is catered for.
If anybody is interested in keeping bees please get in touch as we have people who will tend the hives.
Plans for the future include:
• Installation of a drinking fountain
• Redesigning the Rose garden at the of the park
• Ideas for the plot at the top of Taylors Laneare being discussed possibly as an Outdoor Gym or as a Community Garden.
• The Playground and Tennis Courts are in need of updating and we are constantly looking for funding for both of these. Any ideas will be most welcome.
The Sydenham Wells Park Improvement Group meets four times a year in the hut inside the park’s compound by the main gate and everyone is welcome to attend – just keep an eye on the Notice board for the dates.
Thank you for being a visitor to the Park.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/morphyoss/5075231395/
The Count of Monte Cristo at the Brockley Jack. 2 for 1 ticket offer.
The Brockley Jack are offering readers of this website an additional free ticket for anyone buying a full-price ticket to The Count of Monte Cristo. The show runs 19 March.
Tickets can be bought on the door (subject to availability, i.e. the show has not sold out) or you can email bookings to admin@brockleyjack.co.uk
The Count of Monte Cristo
by Alexandre Dumas
adapted by Connie Stephens
presented by Myriad Productions
In return for a slow, profound, eternal torture, I would give back the same; an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.
Young Edmond Dantes has it all, the love of the beautiful Mercedes, a promising career of adventure on the high seas and a remarkably well-balanced relationship with his father. But all is not as rosy as it seems, for Edmond is the unwitting victim of three envious acquaintances who devise a scheme to falsely accuse him of treason. Sentenced to life in prison, Dantes must find a means to escape the impenetrable walls of the Chateau d’If, discover the whereabouts of Mercedes and exact a terrible revenge upon the men who robbed him of his future.
Alexandre Dumas’ formidable page-turner is brought to the stage in this rollicking new adaptation, which premieres at the Jack prior to a national UK tour. An epic story of fate and fury, revenge and hubris, ‘The Count of Monte Cristo’ is the ultimate tale of vigilante justice.
He will be revenged!
Tuesday 15 – Saturday 19 March at 7.45pm
Tickets: £12, 10 conc.
Running time two hours and forty five minutes
To book online with Ticketweb clickhere(no booking fees)
Count of Monte Cristo
Visit to High Elms Country Park – Thursday 17 March
Meet at Penge East station at 10.15am for 10.26 train to Bromley South, then bus to Farnborough village and a walk of less than 1 mile along good country footpaths to the High Elms Estate.
The visit will take in BEECHE (Bromley Environmental Education Centre at High Elms). Distinctive features of the BEECHE building include its straw bale walls and natural light via sun pipes.
The visit includes a guided tour, £1 per person. Enjoy lunch at the BEECHE cafe.
For more information or to say you wish to attend, please contact: Alona Sheridan on 8244 4259 or Iris Humphries on 8693
9525
Green Chain Walk extension
Iris Humphries explores the five-mile extension to the Green Chain Walk which opened late last year.
The South East London Green Chain, also known as the Green Chain Walk, is a linked system of open spaces between the River Thames and Crystal Palace Park. In 1977 the Greater London Council and four London Boroughs created a Green Chain of 300 open spaces, linked by a network of signed footpaths, in order to protect them from building activity.
The four London boroughs are Bexley, Bromley, Lewisham and Greenwich. Many parts of the system are also part of the Capital Ring route. A Southwark section was planned from Nunhead to Crystal Palace, following the old High Level rail route.
This long-awaited extension finally opened on 26 September 2010 with splendid signage in place and a large crowd of walkers gathered at Nunhead station to inaugurate it.
The new route (about 5 miles in length) links Nunhead Cemetery and One Tree Hill with Horniman Gardens and Sydenham Hill Woods. At Lapsewood Walk it crosses the bridge painted by Pisarro and follows the route of the High Level railway to Crystal Palace, winding through the woods as far as the Dulwich Woodhouse. It then dives down Wells Park Road to the old Upper Sydenham Station house into another patch of the Great North Wood along High Level Drive, again following the old railway track and then up a steep footpath to Bluebell Close on Sydenham Hill, finally reaching the Italian Terraces in Crystal Palace Park and Crystal Palace station.At the Upper Sydenham Station house there is an alternative spur around beautiful Sydenham Wells Park, where a comfortable wooden bench has been placed.
The Sydenham Society post-Christmas stroll explored the route from Bluebell Close to the Harvester on Dulwich Common for our seasonal Christmas drink following the splendid new signage. The route is very easy to follow and it is hoped that walkers will now follow and enjoy the new extension to the Green Chain.
Iris Humphries
http://www.flickr.com/photos/stevec77/65574028/sizes/o/in/photostream/
Evening Standard praises the “ginger line” – that’s the East London line to you and me.
The Evening Standard of March 10 gave a round up of delights along the East London line now that it’s been extended as far as Highbury & Inlington. Sydenham is hailed as a fully paid-up member of the cafe society.
Sydenham
Cafe Seekers
Though mainly residential, Sydenham’s café scene is on the up. The recently opened, Norwegian-run Blue Mountain Cafe (121 Sydenham Road, SE26) is a stylish deli-type stop-off selling organic lemonade and doorstep sandwiches, while Kente Coffee House (16 Sydenham Road) is the place to go to for a round of smoked salmon and cucumber sandwiches and a ginger beer in the café’s back garden. If it’s culture you want, head to one of The Dolphin pub’s garden parties (121 Sydenham Road, thedolphinsydenham.com) and tuck into a lemon posset.
For the full story go to: http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/lifestyle/article-23930858-all-aboard-the-ginger-line.do
Keeping Mum – now showing at the Brockley Jack. 2 for 1 ticket offer.
Keeping Mum
by Judith Bryan
directed by Rebecca Manson Jones
produced by Darren Batten
The big freeze of 1963 and a young Caribbean couple struggle to survive in a new city and a harsh winter. Almost fifty years later, a stranger finds a confused woman wandering the snow covered streets. When the innocence of a nursery rhyme unlocks a chilling family secret, the kindness of strangers isn’t what it seems.
” It was like she was shut in a box with glass walls. And still you felt stuff coming off her, like heat. Not heat. Like cold, like ice, burning. All my life she’s been burning with something. I don’t know what.”
The Brockley Jack are offering readers of this website an additional free ticket for anyone buying a full-price ticket to Keeping Mum, the third in a series of three striking new dramas, chosen from over 80 submissions. The show runs from Tuesday 1st March to Saturday 5th March at 7.45pm.
Tickets can be bought on the door (subject to availability, i.e. the show has not sold out) or you can email bookings to admin@brockleyjack.co.uk
Dates: Tuesday 8 – Saturday 12 March at 7.45pm
Tickets: £12, £10 conc. (suitable for over 14s)
To book online with Ticketweb click here (no booking fees)
Forest Hill pools Open Day – 22 March and 5 April
Message from Helen Ferguson, Project Manager, Programme manager and Property at LBL:
Willmott Dixon Construction have been on site at Dartmouth Road for just over 2 months and in that time they have made a great start to the programme:
- The first few weeks were dedicated to enabling works, which included extending the hoarding line, carrying out remedial works to Louise House, setting up welfare facilities for the staff
- We received approval for all pre-commencement conditions from Lewisham Planning Department, which allowed Willmott Dixon to commence building works.
- Construction work began in early February with ground excavation and levelling; using crushed material from the demolition of the pool halls to form a ‘piling mat’, a temporary surface to carry the weight of heavy machinery such as the piling rig.
- To date Willmott Dixon have excavated and removed approximately 2,500m3 of soil, to be re-used on another site, and are currently carrying out piling works (piling 22 metres below ground level), in preparation for the new building’s foundations.
We have arranged a drop-in session for all residents as an opportunity to meet the Willmott Dixon team and ask any questions they may have about the construction works. The sessions will take place in Louise House, on 22nd March and 5th April 5-7pm. Please feel free to pass this information onto anyone who might be interested in meeting the team.
I hope you found this update useful, please feel free to contact me if you have any questions about the project.
Helen Ferguson
t. 020 8314 7074
m. 0754 5737 522
New Sydenham film club wants to hear from you
Here’s a message from the newly formed Sydenham Film Club:
Sydenham residents have to travel far to visit the nearest cinema – and when they get there it costs a good £10. So we are setting up a regular film club in the town centre, so people can get together and enjoy an affordable cinema experience on their doorsteps. We’ve got a big screen and a projector, so it’ll be just like the real thing – but friendlier and more fun! We’ve secured funding from Sydenham local assembly’s Mayor’s Fund – and now want to hear from residents of Sydenham (and surrounding areas) about:
- what films you’d like to watch
- your opinions about venue, screening times and ticket costs
- how you might want to help us run the film club.
Please take time to complete our 5-minute survey at www.sydenhamfilmclub.org
Sydenham Society Quiz Night – Tuesday 8 March, Golden Lion
Tuesday 8 March, the Golden Lion, 116 Sydenham Road SE26
The quarterly Quiz Nite returns! Teams of 4-6 players, individuals welcome and scratch teams can be made up on the night; all proceeds to a local charity. All those wishing to take part should contact Jackie (8778 5455) or Pat (8659 4903).