On  a  beautiful  Sunday in October,  a  group  of  us gathered  by  Crystal  Palace  Park  Information  Centre
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.  

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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.

Capel  Manor  College

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. 

"Really Informative"

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.   

Katie  Rose 

Associated Links:
Friends of Crystal Palace Park
Friends of Crystal Palace Dinosaurs
Croydon Beekeepers
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 ! 

Big shout to Alys, Ollie and Joe for organising this event and to the fantastic gathering of local fixers and volunteers who made it so successful on the day ! You're welcome to join our new and growing Crystal Palace Fixers facebook group !  

We will be running lots more events to support your borrowing, including more Restart Parties, mending meet-ups and much more!   

And of course behind the scenes we’ve all been busying away with designs, spreadsheets, emails, sourcing things, software, hardware, communication systems and much more to get everything in place.

Fancy help making it happen?  
​We have some very exciting and interesting volunteering opportunities coming up, - as Hosts, Thing Fixers, Ambassadors and Skill Sharers. Come along to our Volunteer Night on Tuesday 27th March to Upper Norwood Library Hub  6.30 - 8.30pm to find out more and meet the team ! 
 
By the way, we still have a small amount of pledged money that didn’t come in - you can also help us with that by checking that your pledge went through and checking your inbox for an email from “Go Cardless”. Drop us an email if you want to check anything about this.

You can also help by sharing this link on Facebook, Twitter and through your contacts to let everyone know we’re coming soon ! 

So as I think you can tell we are very excited that you will be able to come in and borrow items from late April ! Signing up for our newsletter will also mean that you can get advance notification of how to borrow!  

Very best wishes from everyone at Crystal Palace Library of Things and hope to see you very soon ! 

Contact us at:  crystalpalace@libraryofthings.co.uk

Big Thank You To Dylan Lowe For Photos
​Additional photos:  Joe Duggan
​Illustration: Tim Sharville

​Brought to you by 

By Joe Duggan

"So Many Projects !"   "Great Community Spirit!"  "So Many Different Groups I Didn't Know About" "Please Do This Again, A Great Idea" "Lots of Amazing People Doing Amazing Things" 

As you can see from the slideshow and feedback above we had a great night at our very first "Park Night" 
- a special event to celebrate and promote some of the great work going on with community and voluntary groups in Crystal Palace Park and beyond. It was a pleasure to co-host the event with Katie Rose and I'm really looking forward to Park Night 2 later in the Spring and our planned tour of projects in the park. 

In case you missed it here's a list  of all the great groups that came along.
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Click on the green titles to go straight to their websites !  

Friends of Crystal Palace Dinosaurs
Learn everything about there is to know about the iconic CP dinosaurs and their latest Paleo Planting project

Capel Manor College
Find out about a wide range of courses and volunteer opportunities involving animal husbandry, horticulture and much more 

Palace Trees
A Transition Town project that allows you to buy trees as a gift that will be planted in the park. There are plans for lots of planting in 2018 !

Friends of Crystal Palace Park
Hosting information sessions in the Info Centre every Sunday and acting as contact point for the other projects in the park, including the "Secret Garden".

Crystal Palace Park "Shadow Board"
The body that is working to take over the management of Crystal Palace Park from Bromley Council

​Rising Stars Support
Developing young people's confidence through martial arts, kick-boxing and anger management 

The Patchwork Farm
The network of community gardens in Crystal Palace and the surplus produce stall at Crystal Palace Food Market. Part of Crystal Palace Transition Town. 

Crystal Palace Library of Things
A space opening in April 2018 where you can borrow things you need at an affordable rate. A partnership between the Transition Town, Upper Norwood Library Hub and The Library of Things . 
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We were also pleased to welcome our friends from The Ache Garden in CP Park, Crystal Palace Sports Partnership, The Secret Garden Beekeepers, cpneighbours , The CPCA, Invisible Palace, Friends of West Norwood Station, Upper Norwood Library Hub, The Great North Wood Project, and the Transition Town's own Crystal Palace Food Market and CPTT Choir ! 

Amazingly, we only featured some of the projects based or working in Crystal Palace Park. From new projects like Friends of Crystal Palace Skatepark, to established projects like Friends of Crystal Palace Subway, and The Crystal Palace Festival, there are even more ways to engage with and volunteer in this amazing park.

Watch out for Park Night 2 and our Park Tour coming later in the year to find out more. Sign up for our newsletter or join us on facebook or twitter to keep updated ! 

Very special thanks to all the groups and members of the public who came along to make it a special night.

Remember we also have our regular Green Drinks - next one  is on Wed 21st March, 8.30pm in The Paxton Centre. 

Best wishes
Joe Duggan
Co-Chair Crystal Palace Transition Town

Special thanks to:

Bromley Council's Crystal Palace Park Community Fund
Elaine Harrison for her guidance and Lucy Hopkins for her support
​Katie Rose for co-facilitating the event
Beth Mander and Stephen Sinn from the Paxton Centre for such a lovely setting
Photos : Katie Rose and Joe Duggan
And to David Vallade for his wonderful poster below .... see you next time ! 

By Ben Cuddon

For our final session we gathered in the comfortable and homely surrounds of Alona's house to discuss our last topic: how to communicate about climate change to other people. Kalina could not join us but took part via Skype, adding an extra comms twist to the proceedings.

In many ways this was the most important session of all. The question of how to communicate the problem of climate change to sceptics, or people who are apathetic, or paralysed over taking action, is probably the biggest challenge of all. Governments won't take action on climate change until their people demand it, and their people won't demand until they see for themselves that it is an urgent and pressing issue.