Maryon Wilson Park

Meet Santa at Maryon Park Community Garden this Saturday

Darryl Chamberlain

Maryon Park community garden
Maryon Wilson Park Community Garden is open regularly all year round

Maryon Park Community Garden is opening its gates on Saturday for its Christmas event – with Santa on hand to hand out gifts to children in his grotto.

There’ll also be a the chance to buy plants, cacti and woodcraft gigs, and you can give the lucky dip a whirl too.

It all runs from 1pm to 3pm at the old nursery in the park.

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Urban Harvest Open Day at Maryon Park Community Garden this Saturday

Neil Clasper

The Community Garden in Maryon Park is open to all this Saturday as part of Capital Growth’s Urban Harvest event. Its chair TIM ANDERSON explains more…

Community food growing gardens across the capital will be open on Saturday 21st September to welcome visitors and volunteers.  Get a taste of London’s edible gardens by dropping in to Maryon Park Community Garden in Charlton, one of Capital Growth’s flagship gardens, from 10.00 am to 4.00 pm. Capital Growth, part of the charity Sustain, is London’s largest food growing network, with over 2,000 gardens throughout the city. 

At the Maryon Park Community ‘Organic Food Growing’ Garden activities include:

  • Tours of the Garden and Forest School.
  • Display of photos from the 1966 cult film ‘Blow Up’ that was shot in Maryon Park.
  • Activities for children: Making bird feeders. 
  • Refreshments: Teas & coffee
  • Damson Jam and Chutney Sale
  • Wood Craft Sale including Bird Boxes
  • Plant and succulent Sale

In the Forest School area there will be a free ‘Family Forest School Session’ from 2pm – 3pm led by Chevonne Campbell.

How to find Maryon Park Community Garden

Enter Maryon Park from the main entrance in Maryon Road, follow the path to the left past the park lodge and find the Community Garden at the end of the park perimeter fence. Look out for the signs and bunting. 

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Festive events in Charlton for Christmas 2018

Lara Ruffle Coles
The King’s Troop Royal Horse Artillery passing Charlton House, December 2016
© Rob Powell

As Christmas creeps closer, it’s quite possibly time to purchase some presents for your nearest and dearest – unless they only deserve a lump of coal this year…

Here is a round-up of the festive events The Charlton Champion has details of so far, but please let us know if you’re organising something that we’ve not spotted yet. Send us a message or leave a comment below, and we’ll update this list over the coming weeks.

  • On Saturday 24 November Pound Park Nursery hosts their Winter Wonderland from 10am to 1pm, head to the school for wintry treats, a raffle and extra special guests.
  • The Corner at 96 is open for Christmas on the 7th, 8th and 9th of December, keep an eye on their Instagram for further details.
  • On Sunday 9 December at 5.30pm, St Thomas Church presents their Community Christmas sing-a-long, song sheets will be provided and there will be a retiring collection.
  • Friends of Charlton Park have a Mince Pies and Meet Up evening at 8pm on Wednesday 12 December at the Big Red Bus Club.
  • Thursday 13 December has the British Oak pub on Old Dover Road hosting an 8pm Beer and Carols night in conjunction with St John’s Church, Blackheath.
  • On Christmas Day The Old Cottage Coffee Shop in Charlton Park are running its annual Christmas lunch for the elderly and it need volunteers and donations for the day. Please get in touch in person or on Twitter.

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– Please tell us about your news and events
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Maryon Wilson Park Open Day: Meet the animals this Saturday

Neil Clasper

Maryon Wilson Park Open Day May 2018

Maryon Wilson Park’s Open Day is coming up this Saturday, 19th May: a chance to meet and feed the animals, plus a range of other family-friendly activities. The event takes place 11am-3pm, and you can keep up to date with Maryon Wilson Animal Park on Facebook.

The Charlton Champion provides news and information about issues and events in London SE7. Help us by telling us your stories – or buy the author a coffee.

Cuts U-turn: Maryon Wilson Animal Park finally set to stay in council hands

Darryl Chamberlain16 Comments

Maryon Wilson Park

Greenwich Council is set to keep control of Maryon Wilson Animal Park, finally abandoning plans to spin the centre off into a charitable trust and ending five years of uncertainty about its future.

The council first announced plans to scrap the park’s budget in December 2010, with a view to looking for sponsorship.

After widespread protests, the council agreed to hand over management to a trust, Maryon Wilson Animal Park Ltd (MWAP) which would raise funds and operate the park.

But the trust has struggled to raise the funds needed to take on the park – believed to be about £100,000 per year. Last year, the Friends of Maryon and Maryon Wilson Parks published published an open letter to council leader Denise Hyland asking for her to reconsider the decision to spin the centre off, made by her predecessor Chris Roberts.

While the council has deleted £42,350 – the cost of a stockman, vet fees and animal feed – from its parks budget, it has continued to run the park in the meantime, with last year’s running costs put at £70,000.

Now, if the council’s cabinet agrees on Wednesday, it will keep control of the park, and MWAP will become a Friends group, raising money and supplying volunteers – just as it proposed in last year’s open letter.

The council says it will hold a “complete review of revenue and capital expenditure” on the site and look to “reduce costs incrementally”.

Help secure Maryon Wilson Animal Park’s future, council leader urged

Darryl Chamberlain2 Comments

Greenwich Council needs to step in to secure the future of Maryon Wilson Animal Park, its leader Denise Hyland has been told by park users.

The running of the park was handed to to a charity after the council announced plans to withdraw funding four years ago.

But Maryon Wilson Animal Park Ltd is struggling to raise the £100,000 per year it needs to keep the park going – leading to the Friends of Maryon and Maryon Wilson Parks to ask Greenwich to consider taking it back into council ownership.

In an open letter to Cllr Hyland, the Friends group proposes the council takes on the costs of running the animal centre, with MWAP Ltd acting as an independent fundraising body to help pay for animal feed and improvements to their acommodation.

Greenwich taking back the park would also end the issue of part of a public park being leased out to a third party for 30 years, the Friends group says.

The letter reads:

For the Friends group, the best solution is for the council to own and run the Animal Park, and for the charity, MWAP Ltd., to act as fund-raisers to help pay for the animal feed and improve the animals’ living conditions and care. If the charity becomes successful then they could also help pay for the council staff but not line manage them.

The charity could concentrate on running events and developing an animal education service for schools and young people. The Parks and Open Spaces staff can then continue to run the Animal Park on a day to day basis, maintaining the established high standards of Health and Safety needed for managing the combination of animals and child visitors.

Such an arrangement would also avoid any unwelcome issues with leasing the land and losing significant sections of a public park from the public domain.

The suggestion above seems to us to be something that respects everybody and is a much more sensible, realistic, and sustainable financial arrangement than the current plans.

It would be fantastic for the new council administration to agree a new solution that secures the Animal Park’s long term future.

We ask that you take the Animal Park back into the council’s long term care whilst continuing to work with the dedicated people at MWAP Ltd. to improve the park’s animal welfare and educational facilities.

The council’s 2010 budget savings document put the park’s annual running costs at £43,000. But it’s understood that this was massively under-estimated, as it didn’t include staffing costs as well as other outgoings such as paying for park rangers to run tours.

While some sponsorship has been found from developer Durkan and supermarket Sainsbury’s, making up the shortfall has been a tall order for the charity.

Regular events at the park include its annual Easter egg hunt, which takes place this year on 29 March.