Case Study: Beckenham Place Park

Background

It all started with an idea. Which led to a survey of the Lewisham residents regarding the use of the Beckenham Place Park golf course and the decision was to make the area available to the whole public rather than the golfers. Mind you it was the first every public golf course.

In Edwardian times, Beckenham was far enough away from the filth of London and close enough to commute in for business. Beckenham Place Park covers 98 hectares and dates back to 1760 and the Mansion house was built for John Cator, a wealthy timber merchant. Originally the area was designed in the style Capability Brown, as was fashionable at the time however no plans exist that attribute who designed the landscape. The premise of the redesign of Beckenham Place Park was the renovation of this Edwardian landscape, to restore some of the features including a lake and walled garden.

Project

Features of the project was the removal of golf course, addition of walled garden, lake, playground, swale to help with water run-off and to feed the new lake, the doubling the length of pathways, a mound to create the highest point in Lewisham was added to outdo Bromley next door, allegedly, shifting of carpark, recreating the carriage drive way to the mansion.

Works to the eastern side of the railway were postponed as the project costs over ran. The renovating of the mansion house was planned too and on my revisit in July 2024 it did not look as it works to the Mansion had begun. I was pleased to see that the eastern side BMX and skate park had been completed and the grounds renovations were underway.

My involvement

I hope to show the variety of tasks involved with this project and how as the project administrator I helped. 

• Attended the Pre start meeting at Lewisham council

• Site mobilisation, obtained quotes from welfare suppliers and presented to Project Manager (PM) for decision on who to use.

• Organising the signage via the marketing department then ordering the signage as per PM instructions.

• The Entrance to the park was a bit tricky so building in clear delivery instructions to the Purchase orders.

• Delivery liaison with the other contractors involved in the redevelopment of the homestead

• Helping to ensure operations did not impede the park users, as the park remained open throughout the project. Creating signs as needed to warn of works taking place in certain areas of the park.

• Waste where possible was kept in the park (notice wall around car park as example). As with all parks in London we had to be on the lookout for Asbestos and any found was dealt with using correct protocols.

• Being on site for six months in the site container meeting room along with two other administrators was invaluable learning and gave me an appreciation for what it means to be on site.

• Training the two new project administrators of which one was an apprentice and was their mentor for the process.

• It was a very busy office with purchase orders (PO’s) and the deliveries good receipting notifications (GRN) project administrator work, especially as there was so much MOT type1 and self-binding gravel to create those kilometres of extra paths.

• The lake had dried up in the past and was filled in with possible rubble (asbestos watch) and to avoid it drying out again it had a very durable liner laid and topped up with appropriate soil.  This lake is also deeper to ensure better pond life and smaller than the original lake. The able subcontractors Waterwise completed the lake apart from the planting which needed pre-ordered bog mats.

  
  
  
  

• This project had no waste to be removed from site and the mound was created with some of the lake spoils and the rest buried on the upper golf course tees. Coal tar and asphalt had to be removed when the carriage drive was reinstated and the old car park removed. But that was the only waste taken off site.

• A naturalistic wooden playground was added to the park and at the time of my visit appeared to have been a great success.

• There were many trees planted by the idverde team from Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.

• Six months after the start my admin team and I were relocated, as the carpark system had to laid and then enough time allowed for the grass to establish.

• Setting up a new office, adhering to H&S and DSE for the new and growing team of administrators as the business turnover grew.

• Onboarding new starters and processing leavers processing.

• Ensuring PPE available and first aid boxes for site updated.

• Finally completing the Operations and Maintenance manual. 

• Project demobilisation of site and equipment

• Helping with any substantiation needed for final accounts sign off.

It was lovely to revisit the park five years on and to see that it was being used so well by the community.

I hope this case study shows some of the skills and experience I can offer to prospective clients.

All images taken on my recent visit to Beckenham Place Park in July 2024.