Croydon (Parliament Politics Magazine) – A year after celebrating its centenary, Croydon’s Ashburton Park has secured a £1.6 million National Lottery grant to fund major restoration and community projects.
The council’s plans to “celebrate” Ashburton Park’s important anniversary are already a touch behind track because the park was purchased by Croydon Corporation in 1924.
The Edwardian-era park lodge, which was given to the Oasis education charity to serve as a youth facility in honour of 15-year-old Zaian Aimable-Lina, who was killed in Ashburton Park in December 2021, will be the focal point of the project.
This week’s announcement of the Heritage Lottery award comes after the council’s surveying work to create a conservation plan and landscape designs.
In an attempt to “revitalise the former library, pavilion, and open spaces of Ashburton Park,” the Croydon council has spent nearly ten years “consulting” the public and conducting surveys regarding Ashburton Park.
Notably, Croydon’s most recent announcement made no reference to the former library building in the park.
The council claims to have “worked closely” with the Friends of Ashburton Park by hosting “workshops” and “events with the wider community and young people,” which led to the £1,593,762 Heritage Lottery funding.
In an announcement from the propaganda bunker at Fisher’s Folly, they said,
“This new funding will support the ambitious ‘100 Years of Ashburton Park’ restoration and improvement programme, which will see upgrades to the park highlighting its historic and ecological features, making sure it stays as a treasured community space for generations to come.”
The park is located where the Woodside Convent formerly stood; currently, just the chapel is left.
During the Victorian era, the park’s current location housed an orphanage that Croydon Council claims later turned into “a home for inebriates.” The council did not specify whether its restoration efforts would entail a resuscitation of its earlier aim.
The most recent plans include “restoration of the park’s historic wetland” (the area that was once a paddling pool; there is a section of the park that is notorious for being poorly drained and which floods; the plans seem to have opted not to try to hold back nature in that respect).
They also include the construction of a community garden, a new bandstand to replace the existing tea kiosk, improvements to pathways and lighting, and more. These plans were made a century and a half after the park was purchased by the council’s predecessor authority.
“A series of heritage-focused activities, including a community archaeology project and guided heritage walks and audio trials are also part of the exciting plans,”
states the council’s propaganda department, which clearly gets over-excited very easily.
The cash-strapped council, which in the past has struggled to show a proper grasp of numbers, says,
“There will also be community events to celebrate Ashburton Park’s Centenary this summer and the 100 years of women’s right to vote during 2028.”
The council says,
“As part of the project, the Council has worked closely with the Oasis community hub team, and a dedicated schools programme will include a food-growing enterprise within the newly developed grounds of the park lodge.
This will complement Oasis’s wider aim to restore the park’s lodge into a community hub, which is being fundraised separately by Oasis.”
Rev. Steve Chalke created the Oasis Charitable Trust in 1985. According to Charity Commission statistics, it currently runs three secondary schools, two primary schools, and a children’s centre in Croydon. Its assets are close to £400 million.
However, the charity has asked for donations from the general public in order to “fundraise” for the payment of an undisclosed sum for the purchase of land that was formerly owned by the public.
Schools and community organizations will be involved in local history and environmental projects, which will promote involvement and learning.
“The council cannot locate this information,” Croydon Council said in 2023 in response to a Freedom of Information request about the management and disposal of the publicly owned lodge building, a five-bedroom home in the middle of the park.
The Croydon council-owned home was offered an unusually low £320,000 at auction the year before that FoI request, in 2022, and then taken off the market to be moved to Oasis.
According to the council, the Heritage Lottery Fund project “is expected to start in the summer and be completed by November 2028.” Four years after the park’s centennial, that is.
“We are delighted that this grant will enhance the park’s safety for children and young people in Croydon,”
said Andy Gill, from the Oasis educational business organisation.
“After the tragic events of previous years, this investment is a demonstration of how working with local people can bring about lasting change, improving the life chances of our young people at a time when support is most needed.”
What specific projects will the £1.6m lottery grant fund at Ashburton Park in Croydon support?
To improve biodiversity and ecological value, the park’s historic wetland area—which has been harmed by flooding and inadequate drainage—will be restored.
A new bandstand will take the place of the current tea shop, establishing a focal point for neighborhood gatherings.
The park lodge from the Edwardian era will be transformed into a youth center run by the Oasis Charitable Trust. In addition to offering a secure environment for adolescents, this facility will host a number of initiatives aimed at promoting youth development.
Residents will have the opportunity to participate in gardening and food-growing activities through the establishment of a new community garden.
These include a community archaeology project to learn more about the park’s past and guided heritage walks.
The park’s centennial will be celebrated with events, such as volunteer opportunities and educational seminars.