Crystal Palace Transition Town
Contact  us:
  • Home
  • What We Do
    • clt
    • Library Of People
    • SE19 LATES
    • Park Nights !
    • Market of Ideas
    • Community Gardens
    • Food Market
    • More Food and Growing
    • Local and Fair
    • Library Of Things
    • Transport
    • Energy Group
    • The Big Switch
    • Waste >
      • Palace Pick-up
    • Children >
      • Bugs Club
      • Transition Kids
      • Transition Babies
      • Kids at the Market
  • About us
    • Who we are
    • Stuff we've done >
      • "The Power of Just Doing Stuff"
      • Skill Share Day
      • Green Screen
      • Eco-friendly Xmas stall
    • Our constitution
    • Annual Round-ups
    • Our policies >
      • Equal Opportunities
      • Safeguarding Vulnerable Adults
      • Safeguarding Children
      • Health and Safety
      • Privacy And Data Policy
  • Get involved
    • Contact us
    • Volunteer
    • Green Drinks
    • Calendar
  • Transition
    • What is Transition?
    • Peak oil
    • Climate change
    • How to go green
  • Gallery
  • Blog
  • Mailing list

Park Tour

22/10/2018

 

By Katie Rose

​Musical  Director,  Welcome  Choir, Crystal Palace Transition Town & Park Tour Facilitator 

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.  
Our action packed two hours flew by and involved:

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.
Picture

​










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.

Picture

​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. 
Picture
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 ! 


Comments are closed.

    Authors

    All our authors are Transition Town members who are passionate about green issues and getting things done!

    Archives

    October 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    May 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    July 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014

    Categories

    All
    Alys Penfold
    Anna Sayburn
    Annual Celebrations
    Carbon Conversations
    Christmas
    Circular Economy
    Climate Change
    Crystal Palace Food Market
    Crystal Palace Library Of Things
    Crystal Palace Park
    Cycling
    Edible Garden
    Emily Jewell
    Emma Shaw
    Energy Efficiency
    Green Drinks
    Growing
    Joe Duggan
    Kalina Palka
    LJ Stacey
    Local Shopping
    Local Trade
    Lou Yates
    Margaret Adjaye
    Mehul Damani
    Our Story
    Palace Pint
    Palace Trees
    Patchwork Farm
    Press
    Rachel Chance
    Rebecca Trevalyan
    Sophia Wyatt
    St John's Garden
    The Paxton Centre
    Tom Chance
    Transport
    Upper Norwood Library Hub

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.