Hornfair Park – The Charlton Champion

Charlton Park and Maryon Park to get improvements from Greenwich Council

October 15, 2020June 19, 2023Darryl Chamberlain

Both Charlton Park and Maryon Park are to benefit from a Greenwich Council fund aimed at rejuvenating the borough’s parks.

Charlton Park will have its playground improved while sports changing rooms will also be refurbished as part of the programme, the first tranche of spending from a £1m fund set aside by the town hall.

Councillors on the cabinet, the borough’s main decision-making body, will discuss the plans in a meeting on Wednesday. However, there is no breakdown of just how much is being spent in the programme, which involves 11 parks.

Charlton Park will see money put towards the modernisation and redecoration of sports changing rooms, playground improvements, new park furniture and basic repairs. There is also funding for a wildlife meadow to the east of the park.

Maryon Park is due to see basic repairs, new park furniture as well as improvements to its ball court and its playground. It will also get new trees and wildflower margins.

There is no new funding for Maryon Wilson Park and Hornfair Park. (See full list.)

More than 2,600 people responded to a council survey about how they wanted to see the money spent. The most common request for Charlton Park was for additional toilets and maintenance as well as picnic area improvements, more bins and floodlights in the skatepark. Users of Maryon Wilson Park, which is not getting funding, called for a café and toilets, as well as work on its pathways and steps. (See full list.)

The report to councillors says: “Cafés and kiosks were also identified as important but creation of new café and kiosks would use a large proportion of the £1m budget and it was considered more important to improve the condition of the current facilities before adding new [ones].”

PLEASE SUPPORT THE CHARLTON CHAMPION

We tell the SE7 stories you won’t read elsewhere. We can’t do it without your help.
– Please tell us about your news and events
– NEW! Become a monthly supporter at presspatron.com/charltonchampion
– Donate to our running costs at paypal.me/charltonchampion

Hornfair Park BMX track ‘needs investment’, operator admits as work planned

January 29, 2020Darryl Chamberlain

The BMX track opened in 2012 but has fallen into disrepair

Hornfair Park’s BMX track “needs investment” after falling into disrepair just eight years after it opened, its operator GLL admitted to Greenwich councillors last week.

The facility opened in 2012 as an Olympic legacy project, with some local residents initially objecting to the track because of fears it would attract antisocial behaviour.

While it proved to be a popular facility, it was overshadowed five years later by the opening of the skate park in Charlton Park, and has looked increasingly tatty since then.

At a Greenwich Council scrutiny panel last Thursday, Kidbrooke with Hornfair councillor David Stanley told representatives of Greenwich Leisure Limited, which operates the track, that groups were having to move events to Kent because the track was in such a poor state.

“We’ve a lovely BMX track which is now falling into such disrepair we’re unable to use it and we’re having to move events to Kent,” he said.

Gary Starkey, the partnership manager for GLL’s leisure centres, said contractors were about to visit the track to see what work needed doing.

“We absolutely recognise that the track needs some investment and work to be done – as soon as practical, we’ll get that work done,” he told the regeneration scrutiny committee.

Starkey added that GLL was looking into relaunching the track with a promotional event when the work is done. (See 23 and 27 minutes into the video below.)

Charlton councillor Linda Perks questioned how well Charlton Library – which is also operated by GLL – was being promoted (see nine minutes into the video below). “It’s just a small library ticked away in a corner of Charlton House – I just wondered if you could increase marketing of that facility in that area. There’s not much information inside the building or outside that it’s there.”

Paul Drumm, the libraries partnership manager, said the libraries team went to local events and fairs to promote the service, while Tim Hetherington, GLL’s head of leisure and libraries, said the staff worked closely with the Royal Greenwich Heritage Trust – which runs Charlton House – and its events, adding: “Our staff have dressed up as World War I nurses.”

PLEASE SUPPORT THE CHARLTON CHAMPION

We tell the SE7 stories you won’t read elsewhere. We can’t do it without your help.
– Please tell us about your news and events
– NEW! Become a monthly supporter at presspatron.com/charltonchampion
– Advertise your business with us from just £9.80/per week

Open weekend at ‘refreshed’ Charlton Lido

July 8, 2016July 7, 2016Neil Clasper

Charlton Lido are holding an open weekend on Saturday 23rd and Sunday 24th of July, with special offers on membership, and a chance for non-members to try out the facilities – including the recently ‘relaunched’ cafe. They’re also looking for local businesses who may wish to take a stall over the weekend.

If any local businesses are interested in securing a stall during our open weekend on the 23rd & 24th July pls contact us on 0208 856 7389

— Charltonlido (@charltonlido) July 7, 2016

As an aside, we’d suggest that if Better are now describing the lido as ‘Charlton’s best kept secret’ it might be time for them to do a bit of proper advertising and promotion…

lido

PS. Tried the cafe since it reopened? Tell us what you thought of it in the comments below.

Charlton’s best kept secret? Hornfair Park pet cemetery gets council grant

April 21, 2016April 20, 2016Darryl Chamberlain3 Comments

Volunteers who have helped restore a pet cemetery next to Hornfair Park have been given a small grant from Greenwich Council to help them erect a noticeboard and seating area in the rediscovered space.

The Friends of Charlton Pet Cemetery are being given £469 for “a notice board to display information about activities and the history of the cemetery and to create a seating area with a stone seat within an arch surrounded by trellis”.

Few people knew about the existence of the cemetery until the group was set up in 2012 with a mission to restore the space as a place to visit.

The cemetery predates the opening of Hornfair Park, having formed formed part of kennels on Shooters Hill Road bought by the Blue Cross charity after World War I.

But after World War II the cemetery was flattened, with the headstones set into the ground. It was largely forgotten about for many years until the Friends group got to work. With donations from Greenwich Council, local businesses and grants, it has cleaned up the space and put in new flower beds and seating. A memorial wall, where people can commemorate cherished pets, has also been installed.

If you want to find out more about the cemetery, you can access it from Shooters Hill Road, close to the footbridge at the Fox under the Hill pub. There’s also more information on the e-shootershill website.

The grant comes from Greenwich Council’s Ward Budgets scheme, after being endorsed by Kidbrooke with Hornfair councillors Norman Adams, Christine Grice and David Stanley. Each ward has access to £30,000 for community projects and other initiatives.

15 different grants have been given out since December 2015, from money to establish a junior Parkrun in Eltham to electric bikes for fire officers in Plumstead and Abbey Wood.

Details of how the scheme will work in Charlton ward have yet to be announced by councillors Allan MacCarthy, Gary Parker and Miranda Williams, who are responsible for selecting bids and putting them forward to council leader Denise Hyland for approval.

Charlton’s Hornfair Park BMX track: Fantastic or a flop?

March 22, 2016June 19, 2023Darryl Chamberlain16 Comments

A near-deserted Hornfair Park BMX track on Sunday afternoon (photo: Clare Griffiths)

A few years back, plans for a BMX track in Hornfair Park were wildly controversial. On one side, neighbours had slightly wild visions of young people up to no good. On the other, Greenwich Council was playing fast and loose in its eagerness to get the thing built.

Sound familiar?

Anyhow, a Charlton Champion chum took her son there on Sunday… and found it deserted. We’ve had anecdotal reports that the BMX track isn’t being used as much as it could be – others simply don’t know it’s there.

We do know there’s an established BMX club that uses it, but it’s hard to shake off the feeling that it’s becoming yet another poorly-promoted local facility.

But what do you think? Did the BMX track live up (or down) to your expectations? Will the Easter holiday see a surge in kids on bikes heading for the track? And with the skateboard park looking like becoming a reality in Charlton Park, what lessons can be learned from the BMX track? We’d like to know.

Charlton Lido wants an alcohol licence – but its neighbours aren’t happy…

September 29, 2014Neil Clasper2 Comments

GLL has applied for a premises licence to allow ‘the Supply of Alcohol (on sales only), provision of live and recorded music (Indoors only) Monday to Sunday from 11:00 hours until 23:00 hours‘ at Charlton Lido, with the application to be heard on October 6th.

An overview of the application can be found here, and details of objections raised are here. The deadline for representations was 16th September.

Charlton Lido licensing objection

But a 94-name petition has been submitted objecting to the application, along with 11 individual objections – pointing to some dissatisfaction amongst the lido’s neighbours over a number of issues, principally parking, noise, and the attitude of the lido management towards residents.

Do you live in the streets around the lido? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.