Friends of Hillside Gardens And Palace Road Nature Garden

The Friends of Hillside Gardens Park and Palace Road Nature Garden is a registered charity established in the early 2000s by the local community. Our aim to protect and improve, promote and enjoy both the park and the nature garden, the only public green spaces in Streatham Hill East, serving a population of around 10,000 people

The group was formed in response to significant levels of anti-social behaviour in the park and has done an enormous amount of work to improve the facilities and bring people into the park.

We hold the council to account for the service they provide, work with them on improving facilities and help them by keeping an eye on things that need fixing. In recent years this has involved ensuring the Council delivers on commitments to renew the sports courts, children’s play area, and dog-free area.

We also run community events such as our popular sports day, and Halloween event, as well as regular opportunities for the community to participate in activities to maintain the park and nature garden. We are also pleased to manage a growing area, where local residents who lack outside space can grow fruit and vegetables in allotment-style plots.

The work of the Friends group has become an increasingly vital part of the park in recent years. With significant cuts to Lambeth Parks budgets, the Friends group finds itself doing increasingly more work to maintain the upkeep of the park and nature garden and ensure this remains an accessible, safe, and well-loved asset for our community.

The work of the Friends is carried out by a group of volunteers and we are always keen for more people to get involved (contact us here). There are a range of tasks big and small from keeping our website up to date, fundraising, taking minutes at meetings, organisation and volunteering at events. Streatham Hill East is a diverse community, and we are keen to see our Friends group reflect that.

We meet 3 to 4 times a year in the local area, with details of meetings published on our social media pages, and email mailing list. These meetings are open to everyone who wants to find out more about what’s happening in the park – there is always tea and biscuits.

If you want to keep in touch with us you can join our email list. We’re on Facebook. We’re on Instagram. You can also join our WhatsApp group for updates around the park from us and all the people who use the park. QR code for WhatsApp group:

The Friends is funded entirely by voluntary contributions and grants for one-off projects. If you would like to donate to our work then please contact us.

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Our Biggest Achievements

We obtained £30,000 pounds funding for the regeneration of the sports terraces with two courts converted for football/basketball use and two improved for tennis.
In 2005 we worked closely with Lambeth Parks to redevelop the children’s playground, raising £60,000 of the £135,000 budget.
In recent years we’ve held picnics in the park and sports days with a huge range of free sports coaching for kids and adults.
£10,000’s of pounds raised for work at Palace Road Nature Garden including a brilliant new mural that was unveiled by local hero Levi Roots.
Working with Serious About Tennis to establish a strong program of tennis coaching in the park.
Our gardening group has transformed the area behind the toilet block into a thriving allotment site with a range of people growing food. We’ve also installed planters at the top of the park behind the benches and next to the One O’Clock Club.
Planted 10 new fruit trees around the park as part of The Orchard Project. These will be bearing more and more fruit in the coming years!
We persuading Network Rail to install a new fence along the entire Southern boundary of the park.
We organized a design-a-poster competition with local primary schools to encourage greater responsibility among dog owners using the park.