Crabtree Fields renovation work to start in early 2025

Work is due to start next year on a renovation of Crabtree Fields public park which will involve installing new play equipment, restoring hedges, felling several trees, cutting back greenery, and replacing the wooden pergola which has been a central feature of the open space since it was created forty years ago.

Camden Council is to commission landscape contractors to carry out the work costing an estimated £270,000 and due to start in January 2025, states a council report.

Final designs produced by DSDHA were shown to the public this September following 12 months of “community engagement” to explore “local needs and priorities for the site” which is located on the corner of Colville Place and Whitfield Street in Fitzrovia.

“The feedback was used to agree key principles and priorities for improvements [and] come to a consensus on the final plans,” states the report.

Crabtree Fields has a thriving wildlife population of birds, bats and insects due to its habitat of dense shrubbery and tree canopy cover.

In 2023 local residents complained that the park was filthy, some park users were abusive, threatening and playing loud music, and they wanted more police and warden patrols through the public space and better and more frequent maintenance. Camden parks department had also removed most of the children’s play equipment in 2021.

However, they were told that there was no money to step up police and warden patrols or improve cleaning and garden maintenance at the park.

The final plans now include removing a large bay tree originally planted in the 1980s and several other trees around the site. A single replacement tree will be planted in the new children’s play area and a restored perimeter hedge will be planted but limited to 1.2 metres high along the Whitfield Street side.

According to the final designs, the “low maintenance planting plan” will help to “increase biodiversity throughout the park and surrounding areas” and the “increased visibility throughout the space will help to encourage more positive use and increase the sense of safety”.

The central wooden pergola and its climbing plants will be replaced by a smaller framework with less greenery.

A priority for the renovation work is to reduce further the already low maintenance costs for the upkeep of the park.

“The replacement pergola at Crabtree Fields will also reduce the maintenance liability to the service. In recent years it’s become an ongoing liability to maintain and repair,” states the report.

Local Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) money acquired from planning permission for property development in the neighbourhood will fund new play facilities “which will help maximise the benefits the improvements will deliver.”

The successful contractor is also expected to design and deliver a “local community day or event” targeted at “local families and older, disabled and vulnerable people” and provide support for the “friends’ group to help maintain and activate the park” with the offer of new or reconditioned tools, as well as provide deck chairs and games, states the report.

An invitation to tender for the project will be put out in November with work scheduled to start on site from January 2025.

Camden Council, decision 24 October 2024: Procurement strategy for 3 Park Improvement Project 2024 (Talacre Town Green, Crabtree Fields and Kilburn Grange Park High Road entrance way) landscape contractors. Final designs shown at exhibition in September 2024.