The Friends of South Norwood Lake was set up as a community group supported by Croydon council. A group of local neighbours recognised the increasing importance to our community of this beautiful, but somewhat neglected green space and some individuals has already started making improvements to the park. These efforts included those that were not a high priority for the council, such as litter picking, planting, and clearing overgrown areas. These activities have now come under the organisation of the Friends group. In 2020 the group was formalised with a constitution and management committee.

Since that time, we have carried out substantial environmental improvements to the park. These include the planting of an orchard, lakeside planting and clearing of overgrown areas as well as monthly litter picking. These activities are coordinated by the management committee and carried out with the involvement of the wider community, through monthly volunteer days. On these days, members of the community are invited to join for gardening, clearing and litter picking (the latter activity being particularly popular with families and children). In between times we have established a volunteer gardening group that helps to regularly weed and water plants.

For wider community engagement, we organise annual park open days. These days involve plant sale/ swapping, children’s art workshops and engagement / promotion of other park user groups – including a local choir and sporting groups. A key remit for the Friends group is community engagement and we work closely with the council and other park user groups to achieve this.