• Call for residents to get involved in a series of events
Newham Parks Service is working with residents to design a restoration project to improve Forest Lane Park.
The project is centred around the replacement of the well-loved statue of Lucel Tate and designs are being created with the aim of obtaining funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund to undertake the improvements.
An online workshop will take place on Tuesday 9 May from 6pm. To reserve your space please register book at: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/626320851527
The workshop will provide an opportunity to let us know your thoughts and suggestions and to offer ideas about the kind of activities that you would like to attend in the park.
You can also speak to a member of the parks team at the Green Fair in Forest Lane Park on Monday 1 May from 11am https://www.sustainablenewham.org/general-7 or at Woodgrange Market on Saturday 6 May.
On Thursday 27 April, members of the Forest Gate WI planted two trees in Forest Lane Park supported by council officers, the trees supplied for this project had been used initially as a foliage display at the Excel Exhibition Centre on the Barchams Stand for the FutureBuild exhibition, in order to reduce the trees carbon footprint through unnecessary transportation, Newham tree officers have been working to utilise these trees within the borough.
Forest Lane Park has a unique heritage, it once formed the grounds of the Forest Gate Industrial School – a workhouse for poor children from all over East London. On the closure of the Industrial School in 1905, the building became a workhouse and later, a maternity hospital.
Pioneering community activist Lucel Tate was a Midwife in the Forest Gate Maternity Hospital and later started the Hibiscus Community that has delivered bespoke services to the elderly Caribbean community for over 25 years.
Forest Lane Park is also an important wildlife site and the Newham Conservation Volunteers are actively involved in the maintenance of the site. The Park achieved Green Flag status in 2022.
The project will pull together all of these separate elements into an exciting restoration project that will transform the experience and understanding of the park.
