On the second Saturday of each month we hold Workdays on the Green to which all are welcome. Join us at the Albion Villas Road entrance at 10.30 am, making sure you are wearing strong shoes or boots and have a good pair of gardening gloves to protect your hands. Do also bring any small hand tools you may have. This month (as well as the usual litter-picking) we focused on clearing areas of bramble. While bramble flowers are a…
We’ve had a 7-circuit classical labyrinth on the Green since May 2013. Local artist Maria Strutz designed it for an arts festival that was held on the Green (LEAF 2013). Maria created it using stones and twigs and it wasn’t expected to last beyond the festival. But moss and grass gradually gathered and helped stabilise the fragile structure. And Maria has given it a lot of ongoing care. In more recent years, though, with several spells of hot, dry weather,…
Many thanks to Steve Bolton from Big City Butterflies for leading this fascinating event on the Green, which was open to all. The species spotted were Speckled Wood (the most common butterflies on the Green this summer) as well as Gatekeeper (pictured above), Small White and Large White. Other butterflies spotted this summer were the Holly Blue, Comma, Marbled White and the Jersey Tiger (moth).
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…
The end of year on the Green is somewhat waterlogged but there is much to celebrate. Thank you to everyone who enjoys the Green, and to our Friends, Trustees and other volunteers, for collectively making the Green a safe and refreshing haven over the last year. We are also grateful for the ongoing support we receive from Lewisham Council’s Nature Conservation team and those working for Greenscene, from Nature’s Gym, and many others. This October we again received a Green…
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!
This year May Day on the Green will have to be marked informally due to C-19 restrictions. So online, at least, we thought we would go back in time to our May Day 2010 celebrations which introduced the Green to many people who had previously been unaware of its existence. At the event we had Morris dancing courtesy of the Dacres Ladies’ Group. The Green’s newly planted orchard of English Heritage apple trees was ‘launched’ by the President of the…
You may have noticed recent additions to our local Forest Hill signage! Three ‘fingerpost’ signs have gone up directing residents and visitors to the Green. One is in front of WH Smiths near Forest Hill Station, one is at the bottom of Clyde Vale and the third is at the top of Albion Villas Road. We’re thankful to Jordan Ogbeide-Ihama at Greenscene – Parks and Open Spaces for the London Borough of Lewisham for organising this and hope that the…