A £20K project to restore Brockwell Park’s historic clock and tower to working order was launched this afternoon with a generous donation by former Lambeth Mayor, Rudy Daley JP.

The donation, in memory of Rudy’s wife, Una Maud Daley, was presented to the Chair of Friends of Brockwell Park at 2.15pm by the clock-tower, near Brockwell Hall. The Friends are co-ordinating the fundraising appeal;  the clock-tower project is also supported by two local fora – the Herne Hill Society and Brockwell Park Community Partners.

The clock and its tower were presented to Brockwell Park by the second MP for Norwood, Charles Ernest Tritton, in 1897, to commemorate Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee. In design, it is similar to the ‘Little Ben’ near Victoria Station. The Clock kept time in the Park for nearly 100 years but has not worked for two decades.

The clock was wound by hand once a week, a ceremony attended by local children, according to author Jeffrey Rumble. In the interests of tradition and energy conservation, the clock-tower group will arrange for the original mechanism to be restored, rather than replacing it with an electronic version. It will still need to be wound once a week.

Anyone who would like to be part of this historic initiative will be able to donate shortly on the Friends of Brockwell Park website. The Friends welcome all donations, large or small, and they will acknowledge all donors in a commemorative booklet, and online, when the clock is reinstated.