Forest Lane Park is a small public park in Forest Gate in East London. We are thrilled to be working with Newham Council on its restoration and upgrade, with funding and support from the National Lottery Heritage Fund. We have been engaging with local residents to help with co-designing the new Lucel Tate statue. Lucel Tate was instrumental to building the local community in the late 20th century, and the commissioned statue will ensure her legacy is remembered by future generations. Tate was known for working at the maternity hospital in the 1970s and then later in the 80s being the founder and chair of the Hibiscus Caribbean Elderly Association (HCEA).
Jon recently attended a musical performance at Forest Lane Park celebrating Black History Month, performed by women from the local community and members of the HCEA. We also uncovered the masterplan for the park from 1998, giving some historical context to the space. Our co-design lead Sophie Hardcastle created a scale model of the park with natural materials to support workshops in the summer consultation events – a new technique for us, to help people visualise what they would like to see in the restoration of Forest Lane Park.
