Save the Nursery Campaign
Online consultation – have your say!
You may have seen the public notices in West Ham Park or posted through your door with a link to an online consultation on the future of the Nursery Site within West Ham Park. The consultation is being run by the City of London Corporation (“the City”), who are trustees of the Park.
The City wants to sell half of the Nursery Site to, we believe, build large residential blocks of flats with the other half remaining part of the Park. We need your help by responding to the consultation to oppose these plans.
The Nursery Site sits in the North-East of the Grade 2 listed Park and covers approximately 3 acres. It has always been part of West Ham Park. Previously it grew and supplied plants for use in the City of London but was shut down several years ago as it was no longer deemed economically viable and it has not been maintained since allowing it to become derelict.
Please help oppose these plans, by filling in the consultation, through the link below.
Points to include are:
- Don’t Sell Our Park! All the Nursery Site needs to be retained as part of the Park. There is not enough green space in Newham for a growing population.
- Sort Out Your Mess! The City has allowed the site to become derelict. For decades the Nursery Site earned an income allowing the City to reduce its financial support of the Park. Having taken the benefit over previous years the City should now pay to restore the site.
- Give Us A Proper Voice! This is not a proper consultation. You not allowing us a view on selling half of the Nursery Site and have been withheld information on your plans on the land which is to be sold.
Many thanks for all your support!
Nursery Site Update, 14 March 2024
At the regular Friends of West ham Park meeting on 14 March 2024, Ciaran O’Keefe (Formal Parks Manager, North London) read out the following statement from CoLC:
“West Ham Park charity will be hosting engagement activities from Spring – Summer 2024 with the support of make:good, community engagement specialists, to ensure that the community’s views are considered as part of the charity’s future plans for the Old Nursery Site.
Newham-based engagement specialists, make:good will be engaging with local residents and organisations to understand their ideas and priorities for the Old Nursery Site in West Ham Park. This will lead to a set of key community priorities for the site that West Ham Park charity can consider when deciding the next stages of the project.
Between March and July 2024, the charity propose to run a variety of 1-2-1, group and public engagement activities with opportunities to engage in-person, including at the park itself and on-line. We will monitor and address any gaps in the reach of our engagement and continue to analyse and write up the feedback we receive throughout.
Between July and September 2024, the charity proposes to share with the community, a summary of the feedback we have received (including via a public exhibition in the park in July) and use this period to ensure that we have correctly interpreted the feedback given. In the Autumn, we plan to share the final results with our trustees and key stakeholders.
A webpage on the City of London website will soon go live and this is where details of specific events will be posted and other project information shared. The engagement material is already prepared so there is limited opportunity to amend this. However, make:good will soon be in touch with Friends of West Ham Park to invite them to participate in the engagement and this will be start of a series of opportunities to feedback to the charity on the future of the Old Nursery Site.
West Ham Park charity is committed to hearing from as many people and organisations as possible and would welcome the opportunity to share our events and online survey with your network to help us achieve this. If you would be prepared to share our engagement information via your mailing lists and social media accounts, then we will gladly send some suitable material for you to us”
Nursery Site Developments, 13 June 2022
A small number of the Friends Group were invited to a presentation by City of London on their proposals for the nursery site in West Ham Park which took place on Monday evening (June 13th). In summary, the City of London told us the following –
They made an in principle decision in February 2021 to sell half of the existing nursery site for residential development, with the other half being retained as part of West Ham Park. The City of London expects to make a final decision on their preferred development partner next month.
We made it clear to the City of London that the Friends of West Ham Park are totally opposed to this proposal and that all of the nursery site should be retained as part of the park and open to public use.
They told us this decision was not being consulted over, but during the July to September period this year they wanted to hold public consultation events for the design and features of the nursery site being retained in the park for public use, along with the overall long term future design and facilities of the park. This they are calling the Park’s “Masterplan”.
During the autumn of this year, the City of London’s development partner would hold a public consultation on the layout and design of the new housing.
They say that they want these consultations to include as many people and organisations as possible with the community the park serves, and that these consultations would take lots of different formats.
They say that the results of the consultations will then be assessed and included in the designs of both the proposed housing development and the park’s layout and facilities. Once the designs are complete there would be further public consultations on these final designs in Spring 2023. After this a planning application would be made to Newham Borough Council for the housing development.
The Friends Group is considering all this new information in detail, before deciding on its approach and actions.
We will keep you advised of developments, proposed meetings and other activities.
We would welcome your thoughts on the above, and our ‘next steps’. We would particularly welcome input from those with previous campaign, marketing, or media experience.
Overview
West Ham Park is a 77 acre Grade 2 green oasis in East London, hugely valued by the community it serves, but now the City of London want to build houses on part of the former plant nursery. This area could be used instead to enlarge the public area of the park. The park has been a lifeline for so many people both before and during the COVID pandemic and has always been extremely popular and very well used. During the pandemic the number of people using the park has doubled. The Friends of West Ham Park, who help the local communities gain the most from this fabulous open space in such a densely crowded area, are appalled at this proposal and intend to fight it.
History of the Park including the Nursery
The Park was purchased, at a below market price, in 1874 from John Gurney provided that it was to be held on trust forever “as open public grounds and gardens for the resort and recreation of adults and as playgrounds for children and youth”. A significant portion of the monies to purchase the Park was raised from local donations. The West Ham Park Charity is constituted as a charitable trust with the City of London Corporation as the corporate trustee.
The West Ham Park nursery is a substantial plant nursery and greenhouse area in the North East of the Park which primarily supplied plants for use by the City of London. The nursery was shut down several years ago as it was deemed by the City of London to be no longer economically viable.
As described in the Historic England Grade 2 listing the nursery pre-dates the creation of the Park where it appears to have been the kitchen garden for the stately home that was formerly located on the land where the Park now resides. The Historic England listing also suggests that the Nursery may have been used by Dr John Fothergill, the famous 18th Century plant collector, whose collection of plant species in the Park were described as “second only to Kew in Europe”.
Growth of Nursery site and Public Access
Although the public do not currently have access to the nursery the site has never been developed and remains as green open space comprising plant beds, greenhouses and sheds. Based on Ordnance Survey maps and a post war aerial photograph between 1951 and 1971 the Nursery approximately doubled in size with new areas to the North, West and most significantly to the South. Based on the Ordnance Survey and the photograph most of the additional areas consumed into the Nursery appears to have had full public access previously.
The nursery site has always been part of the Park and is within the boundaries of the Park as recorded at the HM Land Registry and is included within the areas subject to the Grade 2 listing at Historic England.
Proposed Development for the Nursery
After significant public pressure the City of London finally revealed their preferred detailed plans for the Nursery at a public meeting held on 11 December 2019, which is developing approximately half of the Nursery into large residential blocks of flats.
Reasons Given for Development
The reasons given for the development include helping to provide a future income for the Park and also helping to provide additional housing.
An additional income stream for the Park may be viewed as a positive outcome as currently the City of London provides almost all the income for the Park. However there is no obligation on the City of London to provide similar levels of income in the future especially if the Park is receiving another income stream. Additional this does not seem to be required of other open spaces owned by the City of London.
Providing more housing in London may be viewed as a positive outcome but it should not be at the expense of losing a significant portion of the Park forever.
Join our campaign
We held a public meting on 9th November (see link above) and will hold further meetings when more details of the City of London Corporation’s proposals are known.
Take part in Newham’s Local Plan consultation. To protect the future of the park and prevent building on the nursery site, it is very important that the consultation should reflect the communities views on the status and value of West Ham Park and the importance of the nursery site becoming public open space and not residential accommodation. See the links in the 9th November meeting page.
Sign up to our mailing list at [email protected]
Support from Lyn Brown, our local MP
We have been in contact with Lyn Brown for several months and she fully supports our campaign. She has collated her letters in relation to plans to build flats on part of West Ham Park, these can be read online here.
Join our campaign
Sign up to our mailing list at [email protected]
Read the presentation from the online meeting 29 February 2024.
Read the presentation from the online meeting 2 February 2023
Read the presentation from the online meeting 29 March 2022
This Public Notice appeared on the gates to West Ham Park on
16 March, it details the area to be developed. Tap here to read it in more detail
Read the presentation from the online meeting 9th November 2021
Press Releases and Media Articles
18 April 2022, Rising East, Residents Fight To Protect West Ham Park
28 February, 2022, Newham Voices March 2022 New meeting to focus opposition to West Ham Park development plan
27 June 2021, Friends of West Ham Park, Houses to be built in West Ham Park
28 June 2021, Newham Recorder, City of London defends West Ham Park homes
2 October 2021, Newham Voices, Letters, West Ham Park: it’s there to serve us not the City of London
10 September 2021, Newham Voices, Park users draw up action plan to fight ‘insult to the community’