50-year-old playground opens again
BY TOBY PORTER
toby@slpmedia.co.uk
An iconic adventure playground has reopened after it came close to having to be shut down for good.
The Grove Adventure Playground, in Gordon Grove, Loughborough Junction, was saved by the Loughborough Junction Action Group (LJAG), which worked with a group of local volunteers to re-commission the building.
Members have negotiated a three-year temporary lease with Lambeth council, with an agreement to waive the rental but with no funding provided by the council.
The Grove Adventure Playground is a historic venue for play, having been originally opened in Angell Town in 1969 and subsequently moving to Elam Gardens, and eventually Gordon Grove over the past 50 years.
It has had a full summer programme of free play and activities, including a free breakfast. The playground has also been offering a free brunch bar to the children every day, with fruit, healthy snacks and drinks also available each morning and throughout the day.
But the future remains uncertain, with staffing costs and future opening dependant on the outcome of grant applications and the success of a fledgling commercial lettings programme.
Grove Adventure Playground was originally set up in Overton Road in 1969 by Francis McLennan, where it became known as the Angell Town Adventure Playground.
Mr McLennan said: “I thought that in the early 1970s we had won the battle in Lambeth to secure quality future local play opportunities for Lambeth’s children.
“Now some 48 years later we find that all the gains are being lost.
“Our children’s futures and their right to play are not “political” issues. If we build on every patch of land then we are robbing our children of play opportunities for the next three generations. This can’t be right.”
In 1972, after the lease with the council for Overton Road had expired, the playground moved to Loughborough Junction and for many years was located on the site of Elam Gardens, before it eventually transferred to its current Gordon Grove site where ultimately the name of the playground was changed to the Grove Adventure Playground.
The playground was shut by Lambeth council in 2015 but LJAG stepped in to try and keep it open for the community.
To support Grove Adventure Playground now and into the future, please visit the website on www.grove-adventure.org.uk to learn how you can volunteer, make contributions or rent the premises for any kind of event, meeting or other activity.
Everyone at the South London Press thanks you for your continued support.
Former Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick has encouraged everyone in the country who can afford to do so to buy a newspaper, and told the Downing Street press briefing:
“A FREE COUNTRY NEEDS A FREE PRESS, AND THE NEWSPAPERS OF OUR COUNTRY ARE UNDER SIGNIFICANT FINANCIAL PRESSURE”
If you can afford to do so, we would be so grateful if you can make a donation which will allow us to continue to bring stories to you, both in print and online. Or please make cheques payable to “MSI Media Limited” and send by post to South London Press, Unit 112, 160 Bromley Road, Catford, London SE6 2NZ
My children attended this playground in the 90’s, everyone called it Vencha. It was run by Jackie and Rita at the time. All the kids had so much fun after school and during the holidays and it was like a second family to the kids and a godsend to us, while we were working.