By Katie Rose
to take a mini-tour of the projects in the park facilitated by Joe Duggan co-chair of Crystal Palace
Transition Town and myself. The tour was the final event of the "Park Night" sequence of events from the Transition Town dedicated to helping people find out more about the many projects resident in the Park and explore volunteering opportunities.
CP Park Info Centre - Friends of Crystal Palace Park
The Info Centre is packed full of useful information and creative ways to interact with the park –including colouring books and the Sphinx photo boards, designed by local artist David Vallade, to a mammoth made of plastic bottles.
Chair of Friends of CP Park, Lucy Hopkins explained the role of the centre which is open every Sunday and acts as a contact point for the other groups. She also told us about the plans to create possibly the world's smallest art exhibition space in the telephone box outside the centre.
Lucy shows us the pond in The Secret Garden
Very few of us knew or had visited this special conservation area of the park managed by the Friends of Crystal Palace Park. Lucy Hopkins and Beekeeper Mark Stott led us through the winding paths and foliage to visit the sensory garden, pond, wildlife meadow and the bees. Some of us were lucky enough to bag a jar
of honey at the Info Centre, which is also sold on Crystal Palace Food Market on Saturdays, when available.
Mark gave us many fascinating insights into the secret life of bees, including that they cluster together to keep warm and sleep over winter and that Ivy flowers are a great source of nectar. The next Beekeeping Course for Beginners, held by Croydon Beekeepers will take place this February - click here for more info . Volunteers are welcome to help maintain this hidden area of the park on the second Sunday of every month.
Park Café and Guy the Gorilla
Making our way to the dinosaurs, we stopped by to look at the café which will be managed by Brown and Green and is due to open next year. We also stopped by to say hello to Guy, London Zoo's famous celebrity gorilla whose likeness was sculpted by David Wynne in 1961. Guy was named after Guy Fawkes, as he arrived aged just one year old at London Zoo on 5th Nov 1947, terrified of all the bangs. Now resident in a park which hosts one of the capitals largest fireworks display, he is still a great favourite of children who love to climb all over him.
Crystal Palace Dinosaurs
Thanks to Palaeontologist Chair of Friends of CP Dinosaurs, Elinor Michel, Sarah Slaughter & our very own CPTT Co-Chair Lou Yates, we were privileged to have a tour of Dinosaur Island in the park. This exclusive up-close tour of teeth and tails was only made possible by access via a temporary bridge and CP Dinosaurs have just successfully crowdfunded to build a permanent bridge that will enable many people to enjoy this wonderful experience. We learned more about the history of the island and the statues which were built by artist Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins, in what was the first ever "edu-tainment" project for dinosaurs in 1854-55. We discovered that the Dinos are resident on areas representing three time eras, the Paleozoic, Mesozoic and Cenozoic. The Paleo Planting Project is now at work to bring the landscape alive with relatives of extinct plants from these eras. Volunteers are welcome to join the monthly Paleo Planting sessions and the Dinosaur Days.
We are very grateful to the "Encounter Officer" Emma Speed for the final visit of our tour where we met the creatures at Capel Manor Farm including goats, sheep, ponies, rabbits, guinea pigs, geese, parakeets, meerkats and reptiles ! Some brave members of our group fed a bull frog and had a close encounter with a gecko lizard. The college offers courses in animal care, horticulture, countryside/environment studies and arboriculture and is open to the public everyday except Weds 12.00-4.00. See here for more details.
Our group of all ages were enchanted by the opportunity to wander amongst secret places and meet the wildlife amongst the flora and fauna of the Park and we received very positive feedback about the tour. Amongst the responses, one Mum said he most important thing for her was:
"showing the kids why I love Crystal Palace !"
She was thrilled to share her love of Crystal Palace with her young children, who loved looking inside the belly of the dinosaur. By the tail end of the tour, all of us had discovered things that we didn't know about the park, even some of us dinosaurs who have been resident for many years ;) Typical feedback was: "Brilliant. Really informative and friendly"
I was so delighted to support the tour and to find out so much more about our amazing park.
Grateful thanks to all the project leaders who generously shared their time and expertise with us.
Thanks to Bromley Council's CP Park Community Projects Fund for enabling this project to take place. Thanks also to Joe for his ongoing dedication to showcasing and supporting the growth and awareness of community groups in Crystal Palace both via these events and the regular Transition Town Community & Green Drinks.
Friends of Crystal Palace Park
Friends of Crystal Palace Dinosaurs
Capel Manor College
Park Night 1 - There's a lot going on Crystal Palace Park !
p.s. Here's a few more pics from a lovely day !