‘Nature garden’ in Peckham is just an embarrassing garbage tip

An appalled resident has submitted a short video to Southwark council highlighting the shabby state of a small park on the doorstep of a primary school and GP surgery which he says has become a depressing eyesore and a magnet for vermin.

Ian Huckle, of nearby Pennethorne Road, believes the neglect of the sweet-sounding Goldsmith Nature Garden Wildflower Meadow is down to its unfashionable location in north Peckham and says there is no way it would be allowed to get into such a mess were it in upmarket Dulwich of close to the river.

“For years this park has been receiving little or no care and is now in a condition where it has become a health hazard, as well as an eyesore, attracting rats and other vermin,” he said. “It is entirely unacceptable.”

In his video, we see the park – at the junction of Meeting House Lane and Goldsmith Road – with an overflowing bin and rubbish strewn all around it. We see park benches surrounded by overgrown weeds and discarded plastic bags of dog faeces, bleach bottles, boots, and even a used condom.

Where a pond once featured we now have a dried up patch where more rubbish is strewn.

“The bin has been full for weeks and weeks. Everything’s completely overgrown and dying. Rubbish everywhere you look. A truly awful place to walk through and come and sit, ” he says.

“Thanks Southwark for keeping out spaces so nice in north Peckham. Can you imagine this in Dulwich Village or down by the river, where it’s all lovely? No, I don’t think so.”

He told the South London Press: “The general state of our street and the little park, which is at the top of the road, has been a bugbear of ours for years.

Southwark council has been approached for comment.

Pictured top: Entrance to the nature garden (Picture: Google Street View)