South Norwood Country Park is an amazing and unique nature reserve with 125 acres of wetland, lakes and meadows, it is home to a huge array of plants and animals. We have the countryside on our doorstep in SE25!

Friends of South Norwood Country Park was formed in November 2014 to help maintain the park for the benefit of the plants and animals and to ensure the park is a place where all the community can enjoy nature.

They work closely with the park wardens and have monthly workdays on the second Saturday of each month, meeting at 10am at the Visitor Centre. They also hold regular wildlife walks throughout the year, looking at birds, bats or butterflies.

If you love this park, why not join the Friends of South Norwood Country Park? You can do this by going to their website

Through 2016, PPR raised funding to brighten up the well-used but unsightly playground in Apsley Road.  We held two work days, where groups of local residents, including a dozen young citizenship scheme volunteers, cleared overhanging vegetation, painted bright designs on the walls and decorated the wire fence with bright fluttering ribbons.

In March 2017 the playground was again transformed with fabulous street art. The work was organised by PPR, using funding from the local councillors’ delegated ward budget. We had help from Rob Swain of Gamma Proforma at 14 Portland Road, who introduced us to the artist, Will Barras.

The work took all day, and children from Oasis Academy Ryelands came along to give ideas for themes and objects that they’d like to see included in the mural. Their school ‘Circle of Inclusion’ was added to acknowledge their input.

More work is planned in the playground, and we are considering installing a new piece of play equipment to replace one piece that was removed because it was unsafe.

These are some of the things residents have said

“Love it! Just noticed it today!”

“Well done. Love it when things get done for the little ones”

“Awesome”

“Just what South Norwood needs. Thank you to the artist for the beautiful work”

“Love it – will go and look next week! Well done to the artists”

“Fantastic!”

“Looked amazing in the sun”

“I love it, so bright & perfect for inspiring kids play. Looking forward to checking it out with the little ones”

PPR are currently arranging for the rest of the walls to be similarly painted, again by Will Barras and are hoping to raise more funds to install a new piece of play equipment to replace the ‘Spider’ that had to be removed because it was unsafe.

For many years, the raised flowerbeds outside the Health Centre in Enmore Road were empty and unattractive. In March 2016, NHS Property Services and Croydon Council agreed to allow People for Portland Road to take over the maintenance of the beds facing Enmore Road, and the Portland Road Community Garden was born.

Phase 1

A plan was drawn up and work began with delivery of 20 bulk bags of soil to top up the beds. This was a scary-looking quantity, but lots of local people turned up to help at the ‘Big Dig’ we held one Saturday morning in July, and all the soil was distributed between the beds.

Thanks to a donation from the local council we were able to buy some trees, ferns and shade-loving shrubs. Our volunteers planted these out, along with pansies and geraniums, topped up in October by 400 bulbs to provide spring colour. We also scattered liberally – a little too liberally, it turned out from the amount we had to thin out the following spring – poppy seeds we had saved from the Health Centre bed in Denmark Road.

We are grateful to the Country Park Practice for supplying us with three silver birch trees, and to the health centre colleagues who gave us other seeds. And many of our volunteers have contributed seedlings and plants as well as their valuable time and effort.

Phase 2

The next phase was to draw up a plan to extend the Portland Road Community Garden to the area outside the South Norwood Leisure Centre, where a community noticeboard had already been installed. Croydon Council gave this the go-ahead in March 2017 and we started by installing a stage area and benches, then planting shrubs and barrels of herbs.

‘What is the stage for?’ people often ask. Our answer is usually: ‘Anything you want to use it for.’ We’ve already seen children dancing on it, but there is plenty of scope for other performances.

South Norwood Country Park helped us collect logs to form bug piles, and we have been able to use old coping stones from Blackhorse Road Bridge and kerbstones left over from the building of Oasis Academy Arena School to create features and borders.

This green area has helped to generate community interaction, as well as providing a place for people to relax together. Many residents have given us plants from their allotments and gardens, and in exchange we’ve been able to give them seeds or just a scoop of compost.

The future

We now plan to plant trees in the grassy strip outside the leisure centre and hope to begin work on this in November.

We have created a list of local people interested in helping to maintain garden. If you would like to get involved, please email us or phone 07982 444773.

Reactions

It is great to see and hear the interest and pleasure that has been created by the garden, which now spans two sides of Enmore Road, and we’ve had some great comments.

‘I just wanted to say a big thank you to whoever built this wonderful little oasis in the middle of South Norwood.’

‘My 3-year-old and I have had a lovely half hour sheltering from the sun on the benches here. It’s fabulous!’

‘Love the new plants and seating area. Well done to all involved, it looks great.’

‘Our daughter likes to use the stage to put on impromptu shows. It’s a nice community spot.’

‘It brightens up my day.’

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