Huge sea of colour about to bloom at pocket park and playground in Battersea

Published: Tuesday, January 18, 2022

The finishing touches have now been completed on a massive planting and greening project at Battersea’s Fred Wells Gardens where 58,000 flower bulbs have been planted as part of a far-reaching refurbishment scheme.

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The new play area at Fred Wells Gardens

The bulbs have been introduced as part of a £316,000 upgrade of this local neighbourhood ‘pocket park’ and playground in Vicarage Crescent.

The project has seen new child friendly soft surfacing laid in the playground, walls undermined by tree roots rebuilt and a widening of paths and stairways to ensure they are more family friendly for parents with buggies while also improving access for people with disabilities.

New play equipment has been installed including a climbing wall and timber play castle plus the tennis court resurfaced.

And to finish off the project tens of thousands of flower bulbs have been planted to improve bio-diversity and ensure visitors can enjoy some late winter and spring colour. Included among the 58,0000 bulbs are crocuses, tulips, ‘poet’s narcissus’ Allium purple rain and grape hyacinths.

Environment spokesman Cllr Steffi Sutters said: “This is a wonderful initiative that is putting this little known green oasis firmly on the map.

“As well as some really exciting and challenging new play equipment for young children in the area, a lot of other improvements have been made to the park’s infrastructure along with measures to make it more accessible for people with disabilities.

“And to cap it all off, it will soon be a sea of colour as all these thousands of lovely flowers come out to bloom in the Spring.”

Funding for these improvements comes from cash levied by the council on housing developers in the area to pay for local infrastructure improvements.

Planting greenery and supporting greater bio-diversity are key elements of the council’s plans to tackle climate change and reduce carbon emissions. For more information visit www.wandsworth.gov.uk/climatechange.