LONDON 2012’s Equestrian events have concluded, with Team GB scoring a brace of medals in Greenwich Park. Although the Modern Pentathlon events are still to take place this weekend, parts of the park have begun to open up again and work is now under way to restore it.
Locog had previously published plans for the phased re-opening of the park that indicated large swathes would be accessible from August 4th.
But when the day came, despite London 2012 posters on gates saying the park was re-opening “as planned”, many gates were still locked, the opening of the Observatory had been delayed by ten days and the expected crossing points between the East and West sides of the park weren’t present.
One local councillor, Matthew Pennycook, took to his blog to express his disappointment, adding that “the incremental opening of the park and the revisions being made … lie outside the spirit of the original planning permission.”
By Wednesday of this week, about 30% of the park had been reopened and Royal Parks invited the local media to learn more about the reinstatement ahead.
Royal Parks are already working on reinstating areas of the park on the cross country route. The final part of the park to be handed back to them will be in the stadium area which isn’t expected to be completely taken down until November.
These are a selection of images from the re-opened parts of the park followed by comments from Park Manager, Graham Dear, and Royal Parks’ London 2012 Project Manager, Derrick Spurr.
About 30% of the park has now reopened – this picture was taken from the Crooms Hill Gate entrance.
Areas of grass that have had heavy structures or trackway laid may be fenced off so that the ground can be protected as it recovers.
The tennis courts will reopen in September – they have been used as a warm area for horses.
The cross country course went past the Henry Moore statue. The photo shows where the course went through the now famous Acid Grass. Park bosses have previously described how they plan to use chemical solution Rescue on affected acid grasslands.
Park Manager shows where the Cricket Ball jump was on the cross country course.
A London 2012 logo spray painted on for the benefit of an overhead cable cam is beginning to fad and grow out.
What work will be carried out on damaged grass in the park?
GD: All around the cross country route we are going around with a machine that we call Vertidrain. It’s a spiker that we use where the ground may be compacted. That gets air in to the soil to allow it to drain. It’s only a precautionary thing really.
Where the grass has gone yellow, if it’s going to recover we’ll just scarify it, mow it over, rake out any of the thatch, maybe put a bit of quick release fertiliser on to give it a boost and it will be fine. That is a lot of the reinstatement.
In other areas where you’ve had overlay, for instance underneath heavy concrete blocks, the grass will be dead so we’ll have to scarify it, fork it over, put a bit of top soil and seed it. If there are very large areas, we may decide to turf it.
DS: Within one growing season, it will be very difficult to see where the events have taken place and I’m absolutely confident of that.
Will any special work be required at the “take off” areas before each jump on the cross country course?
GD: We will fork it, lift it, put a bit of top soil down and seed it, but on the course, it’s actually not that bad.
Why has the schedule for re-opening parts of the park slipped?
GD: We’ll open it as soon as possible in consultation with Locog but only when it’s safe to do so.
DS: We’ve opened up about a third of the park. We said we’d start to open up on the 4th and now it’s the 8th. We’re hopefully going to be opening up more later this week, I don’t feel like we’re too far behind. In that promise that was made, there was a caveat. Lots of big things moving around don’t mix too well with the public so we’re very anxious about health and safety and so is Locog.
The biggest issue is that there’s no East West connection which we’re pushing Locog hard to get because we’ve opened both sides but people want to come in one side and go out the other. They’ve not given us a clear date but we’re pushing hard.
When will the new Blackheath Gate be finished?
DS: The first phase has been done. The new gate and the central pillar will go in with work starting in November. Brick work can be quite weather sensitive but the plan is to start in November and carry on until January or February.
I was Park Manager here for 14 years and it was always one of my ambitions to get those gates done so it will be nice to see it whilst I’m still here!
With the perceived success of the equestrian events in Greenwich Park, will it be a once-in-a-lifetime experience or might other such competitions be staged there in the future?
DS: There’s no plans to have events of this type in the foreseeable future. You never know what will come our way as the Royal Parks and we consider events if it’s practical to put them on, but at the moment in time, the answer is there’s none planned.
Royal Parks have promised another briefing in September.
Nice report. Thanks very much for the update.
Shame abouit the east/west access (or lack of) but a few more days probably doesn’t matter that much.
I reckon it all went rather well. and that we should be proud of providing a fantastic backdrop to the equestrian evemts.
What were other people’s experiences?
Greenwich Park and Blackheath are ancient community lands and wildlife sanctuaries. They were handed over without community consent by Royal Parks and Greenwich Council, who both then permitted every kind of illegal activity, despite the huge cost to local individuals, small businesses, wildlife & heritage. It is more than his job is worth for the manager of Greenwich Park to admit the truth, when every politician and government agency went along with the lies. Rupert Murdoch’s lead editorial in the Times this week applauds the “inspired” choice of Greenwich Park, and says “let’s do it again soon”. Clearly the Community must create and empower a long-term defensive Trust so that it never happens again, ever.
Edward
Greenwich Council “handed over” the Park for Olympic use after its Planning Board, made up of elected councillors, publicly voted to do so. Surely that’s community consent.
Ancient community lands? What do you mean exactly by that? You could argue that all of south London was ancient community land. How far back do you want to go?
The fact is, a few hundred years ago, a member of the royal family shoved a wall around a bit of land and used it to ride his horses and as a garden of sorts. It was taken away from the people many moons ago.
The fact we are allowed to enjoy today is by concession, not right. You and I may not agree with that, but it is basically the case.
Get real Edward.
It’s always difficult to know where to begin with the Edwards of this world. But I’ll give it a go. As Chris has pointed out, the Park and Blackheath aren’t ancient community lands and never have been. Greenwich Park was owned by the aristocracy and enclosed by Henry VIII only much later being opened to the public Neither are they wildlife sancuaries, although they are home to plenty of wildlife which hasn’t been disturbed by the Games. What’s ‘community consent?’ Do you mean ‘Edward’s’ consent? Please do define it. I would also be interested to learn what your phrase ‘every kind of illegal activity’ refers to. What, drug dealing? Selling knocked-off cigarettes? Assault? Murder?
And I’ve started so I’ll finish. What, exactly, were the ‘lies’ that ‘every politician and government agency’ went along with? That there would be some disruption to the Park? That it would be closed for a bit? And I didn’t know that Rupert Murdoch writes the editorial in The Times these days instead of a journalist, it must just be you that’s been let into that secret. Nearly everybody loved the Games, Edward, it helped us forget about the redfaced, whining, backward-looking, unpleasant clownish, dolts that are attracted by self-serving, reactionary little clubs like NOGOE. I’m sure you’ve heard of them. Please shut up now. Don’t answer any of the questions I’ve posed in this short rant. You’re obviously entitled to your views but we’re all a bit tired of them.
I remember back in the day, when I had real concerns about the Park being used by the Games, and you and I sparred regularly about it, that we agreed that, if it was a success and Greenwich loked great on TV, and (preferably) GB won a medal or two, and no lasting damage was done, then we could say that our fears, however justified, turned out to be unfounded. That’s where I think we are, now that the main Games are over.
Personally, I have struggled a bit to feel particularly involved with the eventing in the Park, but I feel that everything has gone pretty smoothly, and predicted catastrophies have, thank goodness, not occurred.
Clearly there is still much work to do before we can completely say that all’s been well, the games were a success although clearly the impact on retail has been heavy (I do understand this despite my earlier comments) but I get frustrated at hearing people saying they haven’t felt involved.
We can all chose to get involved (or not) there were the big screens and loads of people who didn’t know where they were going, and loads of LOCOG and military who seemed to be desperate for a chat with pretty much anyone.
So if you want to become engaged then step out through the front door with a smile and see what happens, remember we’re only half way through.
“I get frustrated at hearing people saying they haven’t felt involved.”
“Frustrated”? Why?
Just telling you how I feel. What’s it to with you anyway? You obviously don’t have much going on if it frustrates you that people whom you’ve never met didn’t feel involved, and quite frankly, how dare you tell me how I should feel.
Access to the park is far from straightforward at the moment. After my disappointment at the non-appearance of the event at the RNC today, I thought I’d take the opportunity to visit the Royal River exhibition at the NMM. I walked up King William Walk to find the entrance to the park there is still closed and manned by soldiers. When I explained to them I wanted to go to the museum, they directed me to one of the entrances on Crooms Hill. When I got there, though, it became clear that that entrance is only for getting to the observatory, and was told that to get to the NMM I need to go back to the ORNC and use the footbridge over Romney Road. I trekked back to there to find the entrance to the footbridge fenced shut, and needed to cross over Romney Road again to enter from a fenced passageway bender the temporary bridge. When Ai finally found the entrance there, there was a huge queue caused by security checks to get into the park, so I gave up. I’ll go back when all the hoopla is over.
I agree, Jack. I’ve felt completely uninvolved with all of this – it’s not been for us, and our job has just been to pay for it all, and be inconvenienced if we can’t just go away for the couple of months.
The sport is of no interst to me, but we were promised that the “cultural Olympiad” would provide a way for all of us to join in the atmosphere of the games. I’ve found nothing at all in that that wasn’t the sort of thing that would have happened in London anyway. The best promise was the “Showtime” event advertised for the ORNC today, but that failed to materialise.
@Wolfe
“Greenwich Park was owned by the aristocracy”
Just where do you think “the aristocracy” got the land from? A divine right?
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