2pm – 2.35pm Step Hop House
2.50pm – 3.10pm Street Dance Maypole Workshop
3.15pm – 4pm A Ceilidh Jam Workshop
We are looking for volunteers to staff the Gazebo, our Visitor Centre at Clarence Gate, the Baker Street entrance to the Park. Volunteers help visitors arriving in the Park, meet a lot of interesting people and make new friends.
Volunteers are needed every Saturday and Sunday from June 22 to September 22. Work either in the morning from 10.00 to 13.30, or afternoon from 13.30 to 16.30. Signing up is easy, visit our website by clicking below.
We also need assistants at the Bandstands on Saturday and Sunday from June 22 to September 22. A fun job helping the manager to put up and take down the banners, chatting with the audience to gauge their reaction to the performers and just being there enjoying the music. Saturdays from 13.30 to 16.30 and on Sundays from 11.30 to 14.30, or from 14.30 to 17.30.
In addition to the 45 bandstand concerts, the Regent’s Park Music Festival includes a series of concerts between July 30 and August 4 in the St John’s Lodge (the “Secret”) Garden. Full details can be found at https://www.regentsparkmusicfestival.org.uk/
Members of the Friends can purchase 25% discounted tickets on the Friends Website.
Despite the wet followed by cold April, we had a fine spring migration, mostly on passage further north. Regent’s Park examples were:
Common whitethroat warbler (top): Just after arrival from sub-Saharan Africa in mid-later April. Seen Park-wide, here by the small gorse pen beside the lake, a favourite spot. Lesser whitethroat (bottom): This good-looking male winters in N-E Africa but passes through us.
Other notables were reed buntings (NB: not reed warblers), the males with striking black head feathers in spring, typically seen singing on a reed, then flitting to swing on another. There were two or three sightings of now all-too-rare spotted flycatchers which are declining annually, several pairs of grey wagtails, splendid yellow below, not known to be still (nesting?) here. Swifts visited in early May and still wheel by occasionally. Our major disappointment was the disappearance in early May of the little owls, who were seen mating, with the male on look-out for at least a month waiting, and presumably feeding the sitting female but no owlets appeared. They had not nested here for 8 years.
The Friends are supporting replacement bird-boxes round the Park and have pledged to buy and help plant some 150 more blackthorn saplings as part of our 10-year vision of enticing nightingales to nest here, as they do in and up the Lea river valley, not so far away. These small scrub trees, famous for their stunning white spring blooms that become deep purple sloes, are favourite nesting areas, and are also where brown ‘hairstreak’ butterflies lay their eggs.
About 80 members attended the AGM and heard very interesting presentations by Darren Share Royal Parks new Director of Parks and Mike Fitt the Chairman of the Royal Parks Guild. Most of the questions were about horticulture and the need to train skilled gardeners. The meeting also discussed the issue of cycling on the Outer Circle and in the Park. To kick off the discussion, Committee Member Mike Baker presented the results of the cycling survey conducted May 20 to 27. He summarised the results as follows:
“The aim was to get a sense of how Friends feel about cyclists, especially those using the Outer Circle, any safety concerns they might have, and possible remedies. We were staggered to receive 702 responses but quickly found out that the survey had been compromised by being shared on a Reddit cyclists’ group. However we extracted a sample of 393 by excluding the under 50’s, and are confident that the vast majority are Friends.
This group included 131 cyclists. Nine out of ten respondents visited the park at least once a week, and most did so on foot. Responses showed that many people were supportive of sports cycling but were critical of a smaller cohort of racing cyclists who disregard the rules. 54% (211 people) had felt personally endangered by cyclists, and 87% had observed one or more bad behaviours by cyclists. There was wide support (70%) for the 20 mph speed limit being applied to cyclists, for more signage (44%), more zebra crossings (43%) and more police presence (42%).
Lloyd Grossman is Chair of The Royal Parks, and his term ends on 4 July 2024.
Dame Mary Archer is to be the new Chair of The Royal Parks, appointed for a term of four years, commencing on 24 July 2024.
The Royal Parks will install gates on Primrose Hill. Their statement said “This does not mean that the park will be closed more often. We are maintaining the current 24-hour weekday opening arrangements and continuing with weekend summer closures, as we have done for the past three years.
The park will continue to be closed from 10pm until 6am the following morning on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays until the clocks go back in October. We also close the park on ad-hoc days for operational need and for health and safety reasons due to extreme weather conditions.”
The Royal Parks charity has unveiled its new hybrid sports pitch in The Regent’s Park, significantly increasing the capacity for women and girls’ football in the Park. Amongst the first users of the pitch will be 200 girls aged 9 to 13 playing in a new Saturday Summer Football League organised by Arsenal FC
This will treble the number of girls’ football teams playing in The Regent’s Park Youth League from 32 to 110 by 2026. The new hybrid pitch has been made possible thanks to a grant of £380,000 from the Premier League, the FA, and Government’s Football Foundation, with support from Westminster Council, and funding from The Royal Parks Charity.
Councillor Robert Rigby has been elected the new Right Worshipful Lord Mayor of Westminster. Cllr Rigby has represented Regent’s Park ward that includes Westminster’s share of the park (about 70%) since 2010.
Enjoy the summer and all the wonderful events that the Friends are organising!
Mark, Chair – Friends of Regent’s Park & Primrose Hill
Thank you to our sponsors
©2024 Friends of Regent’s Park & Primrose Hill
Friends of Regent’s Park & Primrose Hill is a registered charity in England and Wales (no 1201666)
