Author: bromparks

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Brooming Lovely!

The Broom plant (Cytisus scoparius), after which Bromley is named, is now in full flower on Martins Hill. This despite ongoing encroachment from the more vigorous Bramble. It is sometimes confused with the more widespread Gorse, but unlike it Broom only flowers in late April and May. So now is the very best time to see it.

In order to manage this, and encourage the Broom to thrive, we were recently helped out by volunteers from Thames Water, as part of that companies ‘Giving Back’ scheme. Some eight enthusiastic volunteers, cut back a large area of encroaching Bramble. Despite the day being very hot they achieved a lot as can be seen in the following before and after images.

Bramble before & after work party

The Thames Water team (see below) had a good time while carrying out this important work. They were restricted in what we could do, in order to avoid nesting birds, and we intend to carry out more work like this later in the year.

Subsequently on Saturday 11th May we, along with Bromley Civic Society, organised an exhibition in The Glades entitled ‘Broomtime’, celebrating this plant and its continuing importance locally. Besides information boards there was an arbour for photographs, various children related activities, and walks to the site. Small sprigs of the plant were handed out to attendees. The Deputy Mayor and Mayoress also visited us, and were presented with a a Broom plant.

It was a successful event, despite ‘competing’ with the nearby noisy celebrations by Bromley FC of their promotion success. We hope to have a larger celebration next year. In the meantime you can find out more about Martins Hill and its Broom HERE.

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Project Funding Approved

We have just heard that our application, for nearly £20k funding for our ‘Love Bromley Palace Park‘ project has been successful. We had applied to Bromley council for this from the borough-wide Platinum Jubilee Fund. It is the intention to make this park, with its historic features and wonderful setting, better used and appreciated by the public. With the council selling the rest of the site this is even more important, as is preserving good public access at all times, including during any construction phase. All Bromley council staff will have moved from here to the new Civic Centre later by end of 2024.

Below is the view across the Lake towards historic Bromley Palace, taken in 2015. This view is now obscured by tree saplings. We aim to restore views such as these as part of our project .

Items to be installed include-

  • Park sign on Rochester Avenue
  • Waymarker posts around parks
  • Lectern style information boards
  • A new Persimon tree – replacing one that will be lost
  • Leafy and flowering plants
  • Picnic table and benches – transferred from other parts of site.

In parallel with this we will be organising monthly volunteer work parties, in which we will improve the biodiversity of the park, and enhance the setting of various Grade 2 listed features*. You can find details of these work parties on our Events page.

*The repair of these listed features are not part of this project.

To find out more about our project please go to Campaigns/Bromley Palace Park

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Storm damage in parks

As a result of recent very high winds many trees were blown down, including some in our Bromley Town Centre parks. Three were toppled and one badly damaged in Church House Gardens. A smaller tree in Library Gardens was also blown down. Due to the hard work of the council tree team and their contractors, any obstructions have been removed. However it will take some time for foliage, where necessary, to be removed from site. In most cases these trees were blown over, despite being bare of tree leaves, due to the evergreen ivy growing on them allowing the wind to find purchase.

While bad news, it is hoped that other nearby smaller trees will eventually grow to take their place.

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Glassmill Pond Celebration

Last Monday (11th December) we met with Cllr.Will Rowlands at Glassmill Pond to celebrate the successful construction of this important public space. Several photos were taken to mark this occasion, including the one below with – left to right; Pamela Zollicoffer (Friends committee), Jeff Royce (Friends chairman), and Cllr. Will Rowlands (Portfolio Holder for Environment).

As part of this event Bromley council have issued a press release which can be found HERE.

Charlotte Harrington Co-CEO for Belu, added: “We’re delighted to have invested in this project in partnership with Thames21. What a fantastic achievement. A great area for the local community to enjoy, as well as a safe home for wildlife. Belu’s purpose is to change the way the world sees water and this transformation of the River Ravensbourne and Glassmill Pond aligns perfectly. We’re excited to have helped make this project a reality.”

Bromley council press release

We thank Thames21 for leading on this project and look forward to working with them, Bromley council, and other partners in the next phase including planting, etc next spring.

To find out more about this project please READ MORE

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Glassmill Pond: Construction Work Completed

The construction of the new pond has now been completed. While the new layout looks great, it will still look a bit ‘raw’ until the next phase of the project is completed. This will include; planting, adding diversity to the river features, managing vegetation, and seeding gravel. We will need to wait for a couple of months however, to allow the ground to stabilise in the new structures, before starting this.

As can be seen in the above image the enhanced river channel goes off to the left had side, separated from the improved pond area by an earthen bank, reinforced by hazel posts, permeable membrane and hessian. A large pipe through this bank will deliver more water into the pond during high river flows. There is a similar earthen bank at the other end of the pond. The previous weir boards have been permanently removed to allow fish, eels etc to freely move to and from the rest of the Ravensbourne catchment.