Thanks (again) to local resident and photographer Sharon Vardi for this atmospheric photograph of labyrinth walking on Albion Millennium Green. In the foreground, one of the many vibrant yet delicate Meadow crane’s-bill blossoms currently in in full flower.
After a slightly chilly start, the sun came out, and three wonderful and well-attended Maasai warrior dance performances took place on the Green on Wednesday 9 April. 80 adults and 15 children attended in all. As reported by one of those attending, the performances were followed by “an interesting Q&A session and some lovely craftwork displayed on a woven blanket were bought by various of us.” See also local resident and AMG volunteer Nitesh Patel’s facebook post which includes a…
Programme below! Local resident Adrian Beckingham has exciting links with the Maasai in Kenya. During a recent visit, he learned that a troupe of Maasai warrior dancers had been invited to the UK to do a fund-raising tour for their local school. We are so fortunate that Adrian approached us with this news. We are delighted to welcome the troupe to perform on the Green. There will also be opportunities for question and answer. Do bring your do ations too….
On Sunday 9th June, we teamed up with the Forest Hill Society and Evelyn from Exploring Nature Ltd to host forest arts and crafts activities on the Green. The event was part of the Forest Hill Society’s ‘Forest Hill Walking Festival’ and was created especially for children and families. Featured activities included decorating pebbles, embellishing glass jars, and creating art inspired by Hapa Zome, which means “leaf dye” in Japanese. It is a printmaking technique that uses the natural pigments…
For May Day this year: a quiet celebration with Maria Strutz, who created our labyrinth in 2013 — 10 years ago! Last December it was renovated, with as little intervention as possible, by our trustee, Bruno Roubicek. After some experimentation, we decided on the simple use of gravel to better define the path. This means that if and as hot or dry weather causes the labyrinth’s grassy areas to disappear, its winding structure will still be visible and walkable. The…
On Saturday 9 July about 25 young Mud Club members had a day out on the Green. Mud Club is an outdoor arts and crafts session for children aged 3 and over. One of the club leaders, Ellie Weedman had this to say! “What a wonderful day we had! Our job today as a team was to put some magic into Albion Millennium Green!! We truely did! It was a magical 4 hrs of very busy fun and exploring! It…
Walter Hayn is an artist and part-time art teacher living in Penge. He has numerous social and community ties with friends in Forest Hill and has on many an occasion spent time drawing the trees and scenery at Albion Millennium Green. On 19 June, we invited him to record his impressions of Teatro Vivo’s “Tales from the Common” performances. Here is a selection – click on the blog title in order to see them in greater detail! All images are…
Sydenham Common was a 500-acre plot of common land. It was enclosed between 1810 and 1819 and most of it was then built upon. Our Green (for a while, the site of a tennis club) is a mere 2.5 acre portion of it. But today, the Lewisham-based theatre company Teatro Vivo brought forgotten histories of the old Common back to life. In a series of short, interactive performances, the Common rose up to remind us of its great past, to…
Saturday 19 June 13.30-15.00. Join us for a FREE performance on the Green. What do you love enough to fight for? Discover the radical history of Sydenham, and imagine a better future, in Tales from the Common. TEATRO VIVO bring to life South London’s important radical characters and events from the 1600s to the present day. All welcome!
“Last May (2020) I spent a couple of (socially distanced!) hours on the Green, drawing with some friends from a local arts forum, and found this magical corner, where I stayed. I was fascinated by the angles of the trees and branches and how they seemed to interact with each other. As I began drawing I realised that every little twig and blade of grass also seemed to have a ‘direction’; so I stopped trying to draw trees and leaves…