Beckenham Place Park River Restoration
The River Ravensbourne, a tributary of the River Thames, runs through the east of Beckenham Place Park in the London Borough of Lewisham (LBL). The River Ravensbourne can be a place of beauty, but like many London rivers it can suffer from many challenges, including road runoff pollution, plastic pollution and misconnections.
LBL is delivering a landscape-scale restoration in the east of Beckenham Place Park, including a complex of new nature ponds, wetlands and river restoration with the aims to:
- reduce flood risk in the River Ravensbourne catchment
- create a better river environment for people and wildlife
- deliver wider public health and community benefits through nature-prescribing and volunteer programmes
Thames21 is working in partnership to deliver a community engagement volunteer programme of river and wetland enhancement activities, to enable and empower local individuals and communities to manage their blue-green spaces better.
The aim is to involve the local communities in the delivery and management of river restoration and training activities, working with volunteers in and alongside the River Ravensbourne throughout the works to improve the environment of the river corridor, woodlands and new pond habitats.
Volunteering
Do you live locally? Would you like to find out more about your River Ravensbourne and how we can work together to improve its health? Thames21 are offering a variety of opportunities from litter picking wades, practical conservation work in the river and riverbank planting to becoming a citizen scientist by helping with our monitoring plan throughout the improvement works and beyond.
Everyone is welcome.
We are currently hosting two conservation events per month in the River Ravensbourne which will involve work in the river and on the riverbanks:
- Weekend wades take place every third Sunday of the month except in January
- Weekday wades on every first Tuesday of the month except in January
The dates for the first few months of the year are:
January:
Tuesday 9th January
Sunday 28th January
February:
Tuesday 6th February
Sunday 18th February
March:
Tuesday 5th March
Sunday 17th March
The number of events will grow in frequency and will include a range of events e.g., family friendly as we develop the programme, aligning with the park improvements. If you want to sign up for future volunteer events or have any questions about the volunteers’ programme, please contact Catriona Ross, Beckenham Place Park Engagement Officer, by email: BPPriver@thames21.org.uk.
Click here to read in more detail about the vision.
You can read more and keep up to date with the Beckenham Place Park improvements by visiting their website.
We would like to thank our partners for all their support. The improvements to the east side of Beckenham Place Park are supported by the Mayor of London through the Green and Resilient Spaces Fund.
