Pasley Park Festival 2023

On 9 Sep, 12-5 pm, FUN will see the whole of the ‘Pasley Park’ transformed with a FREE community festival fete for all the family.

Our Pasley Park is a little park with a big history. Sited between Kennington and Walworth Road, it provides the local community with a centre where people can come and relax, sit on the benches, play games, walk under its beautiful trees, or admire its plants.  It began life as the Royal Surrey Zoological Gardens, one of the first zoos in London, where some 170 animal species attracted 8,000 visitors a day.  Now two stone ostriches remind people of some of these exotic animals.  The Gardens were eventually built over, but a small park was created within the housing developments.  Some years ago, the Park was awarded a Green Flag for excellence, with the pole decorated in giraffe colours to reflect the first place in the UK to show these animals.   

On 9 Sep, our FREE community fete opens at 12.00 and runs until 5pm and will include many exciting elements: 

• The famous dog show at 1:15-2:15 pm.
• Music, and dance.
• Free activities for the kids, including face painting
• Foods of the World. 
• Market Zone. 
• Arts and Crafts.
• DJ. 
• A short play about Prince Monolulu.

This year we are theming the event around Prince Monolulu:

Ras Prince Monolulu (26 October 1881 – 14 February 1965), whose real name was Peter Carl Mackay (or McKay), was a horse-racing tipster, and something of an institution on the British racing scene from the 1920s until the time of his death. He was particularly noticeable for his brightly coloured clothing; as a tipster, one of his best-known phrases was the cry “I gotta horse!”, which was subsequently the title of his memoirs. He was a tipster on East Street market and a local institution. 

The Friends of Pasley Park and Southwark Kaleidoscope have joined forces to present this event and have been fortunate to receive funding from Southwark Council Neighbourhood Fund and Festival Fund, North Southwark Environmental Trust, Notting Hill Genesis and St Saviour’s charity to put on this FREE ‘One Newington’ community festival. 

Peta Steel, the Chair of the Friends of Pasley park said, “We are very proud and grateful to have received these grants towards what has become an important local community event which brings us all together. We are looking forward to having fun and games and seeing our friends post-covid, with the addition of being able to learn a bit more about our own local history. 

This festival is a great way for the local community to come together via its history and future. 

If you would like to have a stall or volunteer on the day, you can contact John Whelan on: 

whelanjohnwalworth@gmail.com

Call 07747 649 671-for any further information.