The restoration is not quite complete, there are still minor things to be changed but Brockwell Hall was re-opened officially on 7th May, by the Mayor, Cllr Adrian Garden, the Leader of Council Cllr Claire Holland and the local Lottery representative, Stuart McLeod. After the opening Deputy Leader, Cllr Rezina Chowdhury issued a statement saying that “

The restoration of Brockwell Hall marks a proud moment for Lambeth. This project not only preserves a beautiful historic landmark but also breathes new life into Brockwell Park for future generations.” She went on to add that the Hall project had given rise to many other improvements in the Park, including the ongoing work on the bottom pond to create a supportive environment for amphibians. 

We are waiting for the security systems to be completed and the public toilets to open. The Hall is yet to become fully operational. 

It is disappointing that the official publicity in Love Lambeth made no mention of the huge involvement of the stakeholder forum (the Brockwell Park MAC) in the Hall project. The Hall restoration was a community initiative.  Nevertheless, the stakeholder forum was represented at the opening and this is what we had to say:

The re-opening of Brockwell Hall today marks the completion of  a Lottery-supported project to restore the Park landscape and the Hall that began in 1995.

The BP MAC, worked with Lambeth  and the Lottery as Lambeth’s community partner on the first part of the project, the landscape restoration. After a lot of false starts, we celebrated the completed landscape renewal at a VIP day (volunteers in parks) in 2011.

In 2014, the first proposals for the Hall were submitted to the Lottery by the BP MAC. Our application was made on behalf of the Council, but the proposals for the restoration of the Hall and the ideas behind them and their ethos were the work of the stakeholder community. Before that time, the Hall was largely closed to public access. We wanted to open it up.

The Council, on its part, has been committed to the Hall project from the earliest days. They offered both officer support and a small grant  for us to carry out feasibility studies and to seek business advice. The model of partnership working established during the landscape restoration continued during the Hall restoration, across three changes of Council, even though there was no formal requirement for a community partner. It has proved to be an excellent model of public engagement by the Council.

As well as the Council, I would like to play tribute to all my colleagues on the Brockwell Park MAC for their commitment and their willingness to engage in meetings, workshops, brain storming sessions and public information events. Everyone has given as much as they can over a very long timescale.

The Park and the Hall should be seen as a  single entity; they belong together. The restored hall is a benefit to the park and park users; the park is what makes a 19thC gentleman’s country residence so relevant and important to the community today. We hope this will be understood as the Hall faces its future and whatever policies are developed recognise the importance of maintaining that unity.

We have now what we have wanted for many years; Brockwell Hall is open and accessible to anyone who wants to hire a venue for a personal event, drink a coffee, look around or just sit and enjoy a beautiful public space.  There are fewer and fewer available. It belongs to the public and the local community and we hope that all the user groups around the park will see it as . civic inheritance and we be able to fully enjoy what belongs to them.