Talacre Gardens saved – People’s garden given Town Green status

Published: 18 March 2010
by DAN CARRIER

IN 200 years’ time, people living in Kentish Town will be able to walk their dogs and their children will be able to scamper about in Talacre Gardens – thanks to a long-running campaign by park users.

The Friends of Talacre Gardens have been battling for three years to have the green space’s future safeguarded, and this week it has been confirmed that the area has been granted “Town Green” status – the first in London – under  a 2006 central government law brought to protect open spaces.

Like Waterlow Park in Highgate, Talacre Gardens has become a “garden for the gardenless”. Once a bombsite full of semi-demolished slums, it has been used as an unofficial playground since the end of the war. In the 1970s Camden’s first black mayor, the Labour councillor Gerry Williams, fought to safeguard the space and have it converted into a park rather than have new homes built on the site. 

But recently, developers wishing to build a block of flats on neighbouring Dalby Street had their eyes on sections of the open space. One of their plans included building a restaurant – with a terrace for diners on a section of the park that currently houses a playground, and driving a road across it for heavy lorries.

Friends chairman Peter Cuming said ever since the Talacre Action Group was formed in the 1970s to campaign to have the area used as a park instead of housing, Talacre had been under threat. 

He said: “We have had to fight vigorously to prevent encroachment on the park by private developers. A proposed temporary truck route across Talacre Gardens remained a real threat until the registration for a Town Green was agreed.

“Had the route across the park been implemented, it would certainly have ruined Talacre. The majority of people round here live in flats without outdoor space. This is their garden.”

Ward councillor Lib-Dem Matt Sanders, who backed the campaign and helped get the Council’s support, added: “Places like Hampstead Heath, Primrose Hill and Waterlow Park have had protection for years and years. This is such an important space, it is marvellous to see it also protected for future generations.”