Join us 2nd July 2022 for a day of festive fun

at The Ringway Centre

Activities for all ages throughout the day

GPCG formed in 1972 following the successful campaign to stop the Ringway 2 motorway from tearing through Lewisham.

This July 2nd, we invite you to join us celebrate 50 years of community action – saving and protecting our heritage landscape.

While we celebrate all we have achieved for the last 50 years for our neighbourhood, we embark on our neighbourhood’s next chapter as we come together to also help co-design the Railway Children Urban National Park – a new district park for Lewisham.

Activities kick-off at 11am in the main hall with a welcome address by Chairman Chris Blake and a short presentation about the new Railway Children District Park project. Come along and spend the day in the beautiful Ringway Woodland Garden while enjoying all the workshops, games, activities, music and great food!

Programme for the day: *NB: Times are approximate

Food

• We are very excited to have Blue Room Catering do their delicious popup Mexican menu on the day.

• We will also have a BBQ.

Music

We have a great line up of music throughout the day, starting 11:30

• Tony Charles Steel Band 11:30 – 14:00

• Ringway Musicians & Singers 14:00 – 15:00

• Caleigh folk 15:00 – 16:00

Theatre performance

Teatro Vivo’s Artists of Change: Lewisham Speaks at 12:30 and at 13:30
As part of London Borough of Culture Teatro Vivo have spent six months with the climate team at the council, sending characters onto the streets of every ward to chat to Lewisham residents as well as working with 19 community groups (one in each ward). They’ve made a show responding to what Lewisham has told them about their attitudes to the environment, and it might not be quite what you expect…

Grove Park History

Grove Park: An Introduction to its History by John King – 14:00 and at 15:00 in Main Hall

The Railway Children at Grove Park by Barry O’Donovan – 14.20 and at 15.20 at Camp Nesbit

Local Historian John King will give a brief talk on the history of Grove Park and Barry O’Donovan to tell the story of E. Nesbit and her time here in Grove Park. There will also be a small exhibition of GPCG archives and E. Nesbit.

Traditional Summer Fayre Games

Try your luck at winning a prize – play the different games dotted about the garden. We also have chest tables, the Boules/Kubb court, and table tennis – come have a game or two.

Art Workshops for Children

Grove Park Carnival Arts and Crafts Workshop – 12:00 – 15:00

Join the Grove Park Carnival team and help make the pirate-themed float and banner to carry in the parade for this years carnival in Chinbrook Meadows on the 4th of September.

Clay creations: Nature inspired clay bowls workshops with Lily German – Clay at the Ringway

Come and get messy with clay at our clay and nature illustration drop-in session. We will be using natural forms and materials from our garden and woodlands to create pattern and shapes in hand-built clay bowls that we will make. We will explore seed pods and leaf patterns through foraging and making with clay. Clay at The Ringway offers adult and children 10-week hand-building ceramics courses, as well as, family and one-off events.

Wild Rangers Nature-inspired Activities

‘Growing for Peace’ Workshop by Wild Rangers in collaboration with award-winning local author Emily Haworth-Booth

This is the first of a series of workshops till December 2022 as part of London Borough of Culture 2022, to inspire action for nature recovery. Gingko seeds will be arriving soon from the international Mayor’s for Peace programme. These remarkable seeds are from gingko trees which survived the atomic bomb in Hiroshima in 1945 and provide a symbolic reminder of the need for peace, unity, reconciliation and resilience. Once they germinate and establish, some will return to Grove Park and be planted in the new district park, linking our existing Peace Garden in Chinbrook Meadows and the Peace Pole in Grove Park Nature Reserve.

Emily Haworth-Booth joins Wild Rangers for the day to read from her children’s books – The Last Tree and others, which have powerful messages about how positive change can be achieved for our environment and society when people come together and work united to achieve good – in the same way residents in Grove Park came together to stop the Ringway 2 motor from destroying the neighbourhood for ever.

Throughout the day there will also be some drop-in workshop sessions where children explore the theme of peace and the gingko and are invited to design the space in the new parkland were the gingko tree will eventually be planted. See Wild Rangers events page for other forthcoming ‘Growing for Peace’ events.

Treasure Seekers Trail

Explore the wonderful Ringway Woodland along the treasure seekers trail, find all the local history clues to come claim your prize!

Other Nature-inspired Arts and Crafts

• Make a bug stone.

• Create a pressed flower greeting card.

• Make a bubble wand.

• Make a leaf print.

• Go on a nature hunt walk.

• Grow some veg or flowers.

Ecology Walk with Ecologist Dennis Vickers

Time TBC. Join a walk through horse meadow towards the Peace Pole at Grove Park Nature Reserve with ecologist Dennis Vickers who will talk about all the wonderful wildlife and habitats we have on our doorstep.

Railway Children District Park Consultation and Engagement

The Baring Trust – a local heritage organisation – were awarded project development funding from the GLA Green and Resilient Spaces fund to further develop the district park vision that was set out in the Grove Park Neighbourhood Plan. With some match funding from Lewisham Council’s NCIL fund, the project aims to bring existing Metropolitan Open Land, that runs along the Grove Park railway cutting, into more active use as a coherent parkland.

Landscape architects LDA Design are now on board to help work out what’s possible on the site (a feasibility study) and then pull together a ‘big picture’ design (a masterplan) for it all.

As a community-led project, we want everyone to contribute ideas. Come talk to the design team on the 2nd of July to find out more, share your experiences of local green spaces and how you use them, and help us think about how we can make this a parkland for everyone.

• 11:00 – 11:00 – short talk introducing the project

• 11.30 – 15:00 – drop in any time to talk to the design team and contribute your comments and ideas for the parkland design.

Raffle Prize Draw

Support our raffle draw with lots of great prizes – all money raised goes towards improving the Ringway Centre.