The recent meeting of Friends of Mayow Park was briefed on progress towards a community café in the disused pavilion:
In the mean time the Council has been approached with a proposal to convert the ground
floor of the pavilion into a community café. This would be compatible with the use of the upper floor for changing rooms. The Council would welcome the introduction of such a facility as successful cafes, such as Manor House Gardens, have proved to be most beneficial in raising the quality of the park as a whole and becoming the hub for park life.
To give an idea of how it might feel, here's a photo from the web site of 'Pistachios in the Park' who run the cafe in Manor House Gardens
This would be fantastic in my humble opinion. Manor House is lovely and the cafe there excellent. Would CPP have a cafe deserving of such a brilliant park.
I just noticed someone on SE23 saying in the context of Wells Park:
There is a wonderful cafe in Manor House Gardens in Lee, although it is right next to the playpark, and having a coffee in th epark, watching the world go by is wonderful..!
I was thinking the same Sunday afternoon - there clearly is a demand for this in Mayow Park, and surely we could do be better than a rather unattractive ice cream van?
I hope that they had permission and it wasn't the naughty one that turns up without the paperwork...
Sad that there's no utilities in that part of the park to accommodate a cafe near the playground. It makes sense for a cafe to be near the play area, doesn't it?
I've always been intrigued by the idea of a series of pop-up cafes/restaurants in a space like that. In SE Asia a "restaurant" will pay rent to run for a morning in a spot, then close down and the next person will come in to do the afternoon (and run a completely different restaurant), then there will be someone else again cooking their own speciality in the evening. It always strikes me as such a low-cost way to dip a toe into running a cafe or restaurant.
We moved to surrey last year and local park has just got a "Pistachios in the Park".. went there last week and it is really nice. I think it is a franchise set up. Would be great addition to mayow park though park can be quiet during week....
A community cafe would be the best thing for Mayow Park,not only for the people and users of the park but also for us who work in the community garden.
Every week kids climb onto the roof of the pavillion and every weeks I find broken tiles.
Its sad to see a building like this crumbiling down.
When I spoke last to the Friends and Lewisham council I was told that now they are looking for an independent group to take over the pavillion.This seem to come up everytime at the Friends meeting,and then nothing then happens.
'The council has been approached with the proposal ........' This has been going on for the last 3 years. What are we waiting for?
My fingers are itching Im sure with everyone wanting a great community cafe we should all get togehter and to created a community owned cafe. Im sure there are some local crafts men and women in Sydenham. We might end up in 10 years time still saying the same thing and the roof will be probably completely be gone by then!
I just don't understand why it has to take SO LONG!!
What are we witing for...
I hope you won't mind me digressing for a moment but I remember Mayow Park in the late forties and fifties, it was a wonderful place to play. If you went into the entrance in Mayow Road opposite Burghill (?) Road there was a lovely building on the left, is that the Pavilion?, in there they had a seating area where you could buy all sorts of refreshments.
I remember the cafe there when I moved to the area in 1994. I would love to see something being run in the park again.
Correct me if I'm wrong though but a couple of years ago when the council ran a "tell us what you think" type session in the park I am sure they said that the pavillion was in need of a complete overhaul before it could be used for anything. I could be mixing up memories here by the way as I also know someone who spoke to the council about the possibility of opening a cafe there and they were told they would have to do all the work needed to get the pavilion useable again. I can understand the kitting out aspect of it but I am sure I heard the flooring was dangerous etc. Am I misremembering here? Anyway, if that is the case I am sure it would be out of the league of community groups as the cost would be prohibitive and then for private ventures the limited opening of the park (eg winter months) would surely make it virtually impossible to operate at a profit.
