EventLambeth

As you will have been aware since our initial COVID-19 blog post, there have been a significant number of changes.  We are now entering the 5th week of lockdown, and the 6th week of working from home for EventLambeth.  In these unprecedented times, we have, understandably, seen a considerable change in our calendar.  At a time of year, when we are usually working with event organisers towards our Summer Season.  We  help the delivery of hundreds of public events and support street parties and events throughout the borough. Alongside visiting our Parks and Open spaces we would be busy working with our colleagues in Lambeth Landscapes on the ground maintenance and preparation ahead of the event season.  We are used to being out and about in all weathers and at all times of the year. And along with the rest of the population, we are adapting and supporting our NHS and key worker colleagues by staying in and working from home.  We have been looking at ways that we can bring an online programme that provides all the fun of the digital fair! If you have a favourite event that you have attended in one of Lambeth’s fabulous Parks and Open spaces, help us share those beautiful stories. Tell us what you are doing and what events you want to see come to Lambeth.  We want to hear about them and see if we can share them with as many people as possible. If you’re one of our event organisers, help us keep the spirits up by sharing your best moments.  If you are one of our event attendees,...

Winterville 2018

Winterville is back on Clapham Common. The event build began just over a week ago and in less than a week it will open to the public, on Thursday 15th November. If you want to find out more about what’s on at Winterville then head to their website – www.winterville.co.uk Once you are on Winterville website do have a look at the community page you will find information on local resident and businesses discounts and schools offers. EventLambeth team have worked very closely with the event organisers and their new production company to ensure lessons learnt from the first year of Winterville have been carried over and improvements made. Some of the changes for 2018 include: a) Reduced overall footprint of the site by 20% b) Increased ground protection c) Robust vehicle management on site d) All built structures are elevated and have temporary flooring – ensuring a gap between floor and grass for air circulation c) More focus on family and children’s activities You might have noticed that the event has taken longer to build this year. The extra days meant that all trackway and ground protection measures were in place before construction of the site began. Reinstatement was a huge issue with the event in January this year when they came off site. This has been addressed in the planning application and event assessment process. EventLambeth will share further information towards the end of the Winterville run in December about the full reinstatement plan. But rest assured a Landscaping Company will be in place at the beginning of December to monitor the ground and will begin work...

Brand new shoots of grass – hooray!

  Although the long hot summer has been wonderful for use all, the grass across all our parks and commons have struggled. The last event on Clapham Common for the summer events season was SW4.  They left site on Friday 31st August but the contractors, Talbots, were on the event site from Thursday 30th August starting the reinstatement work.  They began with Grass Harrowing – this is where they scrape the surface lightly and break the top soil and any mud that has accumulated and lift up the grass.  Then they vertidrained the site– this is the process where a drum with tines on it that they roll over the ground and create series of holes in the ground.  This works to de-compact the ground and helps get air and water to the roots.  A few days later they came back and fertilised and disc-seeded.  This is a machine which has a blade the cuts a shallow channel which seed is pumped into and then a roller pushes the soil back over the top.  The majority of the event site was disc seeded 1 way and where there were areas of greater impact form summer events Talbots then went over these areas a further 2 times.   This process also leaves some seeds on the top of the ground and often where they have lifted the rollers to make a turn what is left in the pipes falls out onto the top of the ground.  These areas are evident by the clusters of birds.  The picture below is of the disc seeder on at work on Brockwell Park.   The...

Could we have some rain please …..

The Verti -draining has been done to de compress the ground. The chain harrow has been done to lift the grass and encourage it to spring back. On Tuesday we began to lay the new turf in the first stage (pre Lambeth Country Show). Now what’s needed is a good rain shower over the next couple of days just to get that grass growing.  BBC Weather isn’t forecasting any.  So Talbots are on the job and have their water bowser on the park watering the new turf areas and then onto the dry brown patches of grass.  However, if anyone has a good rain dance then do pop down to Brockwell – our new turf would be grateful. Talbots also had a delivery of 20 tons of top soil today and they will begin to start working on areas where there were deep ruts and areas of uneven surfaces. Working is progressing well and we’ll continue to update you. Below are some pictures of the new turf going in.  It will be rolled and evened out and then the joins will knit together and the edges will be tided up....