31 July 2014

Lewisham Elders Resource Centre - Open Day

Saturday 9th August, 11:30am-3:30pm, Stanstead Lodge, 260 Stanstead Road, Forest Hill, SE23 1DD

There will be stalls with Bric a Brac, Cakes for sale, and an AUCTION of porcelain dolls and other items.

There will also be short demonstrations of Tai Chi - line dancing - Vista Reminiscence and their Choir. This will Start around 2.00pm to 2.30pm and all proceeding will be going back into the rebuilding funds for Stanstead Lodge which is a Grade ll listed building and urgently needs funding for its restoration.


29 July 2014

Honor Oak Pub - Reopening on 14th August

The Honor Oak Pub has announced their opening date:
 "The grand reveal will be on Thursday 14th August when we open our doors to everyone from 8pm with free canapés and surprises at our preview night. 
Kitchen opens for bookings from Friday 15th August. Everyday from 10am"
 

15 July 2014

Public Invite: Forest Hill Town Centre design workshop - vision 2023


Open feedback session from 4-5pm this Saturday 19th July at 6 Havelock Walk (off London Road)

This Saturday the Forest Hill Society and SEE3 are organising a creative workshop for local architects and designers to develop ideas for improving Forest Hill Town Centre. At the end of the workshop there will be an open feedback session for the wider community to come and find out what we have been up to, to hear about the ideas, to ask questions, and input into our emerging town centre vision. 

The workshop is intentionally about looking broadly at the identity of the town centre, key sites (including the station, Perry Vale and Dartmouth Road) and any areas which could benefit from improvement or change.  Over the course of the day the teams attending will help define some of the problems in the town centre and start to develop creative ideas for solving some of them.  This workshop will be focusing on physical issues and spaces rather than building uses and what goes on inside of the buildings. 

The results of the workshop will be published over the summer and we hope they can be used to help support applications for funding to improve the town centre as well as encouraging private developers to make investments and improvements. 

Everyone involved in the day is volunteering their time to help Forest Hill and the town centre and we would really love to have wider support from the community.  If you have any questions please email hilary@fhsoc.com

Please come along between 4pm and 5pm and see what we come up with.

There are some background documents that might make useful reading:

Lewisham Council's 2003 Urban Design Framework for Forest Hill Town Centre (in three parts):

Forest Hill Ward Assembly funded 2010 Street Clutter report on the Town Centre.

07 July 2014

Call out to local architects, urban designers, landscape architects and related professionals

Forest Hill Town Centre - Design Charrette, Saturday, 19th July 2014
The last area specific vision and planning guidance for Forest Hill Town Centre was produced in 2003 and much has changed since this time. The town centre has seen a considerable increase in new businesses and new residential development over the past 3-4 years, a new swimming pools complex has opened and the Horniman Museum and Horniman Triangle attract ever more people to the area. There is also an established arts community focused on Havelock Walk and new workspace for artists is due to open this year in Louise House. The addition of London Overground to connect Forest Hill into the underground network has been highly successful and the area is in high demand to new residents. BUT at the heart of this the south circular still passes through the town centre and has a big impact on people and spaces, in addition key streets lack coherence, some connections are poor and key sites are an eyesore.

The Forest Hill Society, SEE3 and members of the wider community have identified that there is
a strong need for a new creative vision for the town centre and related areas, based on:
• evidence of how it works today;
• a community led vision for change and action; and
• creative ideas for making the town centre a better place.

Achieving this will be a significant piece of work and in order to start this process off we are holding a community led design charrette to be held on the Saturday, 19th July 2014 in Havelock Walk. 

The idea is to harness the analytical and creative skills of the local community, to focus on using the skills of local architects, urban designers, landscape architects and related professionals and to run the workshops in the format of a short design charrette or creative workshop. The written outcomes of this work will become supporting documents and content for further placemaking and regeneration work, to help support future funding applications and to help inform future policy guidance.

This workshop will be run between 10am and 5pm in a central venue that enables site visits, investigations and ideas testing. This is a realistic amount of time to expect local people to contribute initially and that we hope a sufficient number of people with creative vision and useful experience will be able to attend (ideally we are looking for around 20-25 in total for the charrette plus more for a feedback and review session at the end of the day). Those attending will comprise both invited local built environment specialists, including architects, landscape architects, engineers, planners and other specialists, and others that have identified they would like to attend in response to a local call for support. We would like those attending to include local traders, community groups, and people from a range of ages and ethnic groups.

Specifically we want to bring together a creative mix of skills, experience, local knowledge and new ideas.

THE SITES AND OPPORTUNITIES
The sites and areas that have been identified to look at include:
• Forest Hill Station forecourt and related sites, including the visual approach into Forest Hill from the South Circular
• Perry Vale pedestrianisation ideas and related sites, including the Perry Vale Car park
• The connections between Forest Hill and Sydenham along the railway line
• Dartmouth Road spaces and pocket park opportunities

If you are interested in taking part please contact Hilary@fhsoc.com

05 July 2014

Froglife comes to Dacres Wood Nature Reserve

12th, 13th, 19th & 20th July Dacres Wood will be open for the Sydenham Arts Trail.

The weekend of the 12th & 13th July, 11-5pm artists Kay Bromley, Lilian Chow, Diana Mckinnon, Lisa Muten, & Jill Tse will be showing their work varying from paintings, textiles, prints and jewellery.

On the 19th July Froglife are coming to the reserve, 10-4pm. On this day there will lots of activities for all the family including pond dipping, making plaster cast frogs as well as talks and information on the amphibians and fauna of the pond.

We look forwrad to seeing you then.
Also if you are able to volunteer a few hours on any of these days to help with making teas or greeting visitors please contact us.
 

Devonshire Road Nature Reserve Open Day - 20th July


03 July 2014

Summer at the Horniman


Horniman’s Curious Tea Party

Sat 12 to Sun 13 July 2014

An eccentric weekend of Edwardian inspired dance, music, frivolity and food in our Gardens. See specially-commissioned dance and music performances inspired by the Horniman and its eclectic collections, take part in tea dances, go on a singing treasure hunt, experience immersive fantastical art installations, enjoy ragtime jazz, discover a cabinet of curiosities, meet a giant explorer, see dazzling circus acts and more.


Summer Holidays

Mon 28 Jul to Sun 31 Aug
This summer is packed full of exciting new and regular activities from Big Wednesdays to Nature Explorers. See the full summer programme for families.

Jazz Picnics

Wed 16, 23, 30 Jul, 7-8.30pm
Chill out to three special evening Bandstand concerts set against a stunning London skyline. We start the series with Albert Ball’s Flying Acesthe UK's only fully-professional ragtime band.






The Great Animal Orchestra

Sun 27 Jul – Sun 31 Aug
Explore nature's music and the fascinating sounds of animals, birds and insects in this sound installation designed by Bernie Krause. Come along to The Great Animal Orchestra Party on the opening day, featuring Bandstand concerts and family activities.  




Behind the Scenes: A Tour of the Natural History Collection

Thurs 14 Aug, 7pm
Take a behind the scenes tour of our celebrated Natural History Collection and see some rarely displayed specimens, such as Frederick Horniman’s insects collection.
Tickets: £5. Book online.


Extremes Garden
Until Mon 1 September
A special display of cacti and succulents which explores the amazing adaptations plants have made to survive the most extreme conditions on Earth. This display is near the Animal Walk in the Gardens.


20 June 2014

Free - Meet the Artist event in Forest Hill


Sunday 29th June, 5pm at DoopoDoopo. Art show from Adelina Iliev and Martin Lea.

17 June 2014

Honor Oak Pub to Reopen

Reports on Twitter confirm that the Honor Oak Pub (corner of Brockley Rise and St Germans Road) will be reopening as a Gastropub in August this year.

Last year the Forest Hill Society successfully applied to Lewisham Council to have this pub listed as an Asset of Community Value. We believe this has helped ensure it's survival as a pub, after rumours were received of interest from a supermarket chain.

This news comes hot on the heals of news that Sainsbury's are no longer interested in taking over the Windmill pub in Kirkdale. The Sydenham Society are taking the lead in ensuring the best use is made of this Asset of Community Value in SE26.