Community is devastated after memorial benches vandalised

Someone seems to have taken a bench press too far in one of South London’s most treasured nooks.

Benches were vandalised in the Rookery, Streatham Common, last week.

The memorial benches have plaques going back 30 or 40 years in some cases, and residents fear these will be lost.

Volunteers who maintain the area of Streatham Common say it will cost £700 to replace each one – and have appealed for donations from the thousands of walkers who use the area to raise the thousands of pounds needed.

One volunteer was in the process of restoring the benches and has seen his work destroyed.

A joint message from the Streatham Common Co-operative (SCCoOP) and the Friends of Streatham Common (FOSC), said: “The recent vandalism to the memorial benches has had a huge impact on the community of Streatham and the visitors to The Rookery Gardens and our team.“

“The damage, going into the thousands, is not something that we have the budget to fix and will take a long time bring this feature of the park back for our visitors.

“It has devastated our small team and our wonderful volunteers who work tirelessly to make the gardens a unique haven for the community.

“We are grateful for the outpouring of sympathy and outrage by the community.

The Friends of Streatham Common charity and SCCoOP are now fundraising to raise both the money to restore and replace the benches and to install CCTV to deter such devastation in the future. Streatham Common

Co-operative is a very small not for profit organisation set-up by the community to run The Rookery and conservation in Streatham Common for the benefit of all its users.

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