London’s biggest park since the Olympics set to open in the spring
By Charlotte Lillywhite, Local Democracy Reporter
A new public park dubbed the biggest to open in London since the Olympics will soon be welcoming visitors as part of a huge £150m hospital revamp project.
The new mental health facilities at the centre of the Springfield University Hospital redevelopment are now almost ready to open, an NHS trust has confirmed.
Spanning 32 acres, the site’s new green space in in Glenburnie Road, Tooting, will have a pavilion café, amphitheatre, gardens, children’s playgrounds, ponds, a new footbridge and a youth shelter. There will also be areas for football, rugby and cricket teams to play.
It will be joined on the Springfield Village development by two new mental health facilities which will soon open to the public. There will also be a care home, shops and more than 800 homes – plus space for a new school.
The project from South West London and St George’s Mental Health NHS Trust to transform Springfield Hospital and provide new world-class mental health facilities was approved in 2020.
Phillip Murray, director of finance and performancethe trust, said the hospital will be “very much at the centre” of the development in efforts to destigmatise mental health.
He told Wandsworth council’s health committee on Monday the new facilities will be among the best in the country.
He said: “What we’re obviously trying to do here is to break down the stigma of mental health. All of us at one time or other will experience some kind of stress and anxiety and, of course, we know that a quarter of the population will probably need medical intervention of one kind or another during their lives for mental ill health.”
Mr Murray said the trust is hoping to open the first mental health facility next month and the second in the New Year.
The new park is expected to open to the public in three phases between the spring of 2023 and the summer of 2025.
Pictured top: Bird’s eye view of the new hospital building plans (Picture: South West London And St George’s Mental Health NHS Trust)