## **The Friends of South Park Gardens** Annual Report and Accounts _1 January 2025 to 31 December 2025_ Friends of South Park Gardens Charity registration number 1162459 1 ## **THE FRIENDS OF SOUTH PARK GARDENS** ## **Address** c/o The Garden Pavilion, South Park Gardens, Wimbledon, London SW19 8PN. ## **Trustees** Nicholas Evans (Chair) Helen Day Jamie Hay Sylvia Lucas Tony Medawar (resigned 31/01/2025) Helen Rogers Caroline Threadgold ## **Book keeper** Lynn Dyson ## **Bankers** Lloyds Bank plc, Chichester Branch, PO Box 1000, BX1 1LT CCLA Investment Management Ltd, COIF Charity Funds, 80 Cheapside, London EC4V 6DZ Friends of South Park Gardens Charity registration number 1162459 2 ## **THE FRIENDS OF SOUTH PARK GARDENS** ## **ANNUAL REPORT** ## **Introduction** The Friends of South Park Gardens is a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO) registered with The Charity Commission in England and Wales under number 1162459. The CIO is a direct replacement of the unincorporated charity with the same name. The CIO was entered on the Charities register on 26 June 2015. ## **Charitable objects** The object of the charity is in summary, to promote, support and assist in the maintenance, improvement and enhancement of South Park Gardens in Wimbledon, London, SW19, as a recreational area to be used and enjoyed by the whole community, including identifying and implementing security measures. ## **Trustees and staff** The trustees are all local residents and were elected at the annual general meeting. All trustees are volunteers and there are presently no paid employees of the Friends of South Park Gardens. ## **Background** The Friends began in 2002 as a campaigning body with the purpose of restoring the Gardens to their original Victorian pleasure garden plan. In 2009, this was achieved through a combination of community activity and funding, a grant obtained from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) and council improvements and investment. In 2014 planning permission was granted for the redevelopment of the dilapidated gardeners’ compound and toilets. The building was funded using remaining HLF Funds and Council funding and was completed in 2015. This building is now a vibrant and essential part of the Gardens. The Pavilion building provides a community resource, disabled lavatory, and improved Gardeners Compound and work area. In addition, a kiosk serving refreshments opened under a lease arrangement with Merton Council. The kiosk, ‘Bliss in the Park” is a welcome facility enjoyed by many. ## **Merton Council** The trustees have regular meetings and are in regular communication with both Merton Council’s Head of Parks Services and the Council contractor responsible for the maintenance of the Gardens - _i_ dverde. The trustees have built up a good relationship with Merton’s Green Spaces Manager, Andrew Kauffman and various other of his colleagues. The _i_ dverde gardening team has worked in the Gardens for many years and our appreciation of their work is recorded here. ## **ACTIVITIES IN 2025** _The Gardens_ South Park Gardens was awarded the prestigious international Green Flag Award again in 2025. This is an international benchmark standard for publicly accessible parks and green spaces in the UK and around the world. Friends of South Park Gardens Charity registration number 1162459 3 The new beds (at the entrances) continue to thrive and there has been further new planting and enhancements to the gardens themselves as referred to below. Repairs to the paths remain an important requirement and we continued to press Merton Council to action remedial repairs as necessary and to arrange upgrades to the path surfaces. In September we had a meeting with the Dementia Friendly Communities Coordinator for Merton with a view to making the Gardens more dementia friendly and potentially to becoming a fully dementia inclusive park. ## _Gardening Club_ The Friends has an active Gardening Club which plan and plant as well as assist with maintenance of the flower beds in the Gardens. They use the nursery area in the raised beds behind the Garden Pavilion for the cultivation and growing on of plants for replenishing stock in the Gardens (and for the popular plant sales). 2025 was another good year for the gardening group despite the weather with a regular turn out of ten to a dozen volunteers each Sunday morning. The first six weeks of 2025 were very wet and parts of the gardens were flooded and waterlogged. Once the beds were accessible regular gardening activities resumed e.g. weeding, mulching and planning new plantings. In March 2025 four Yoshino cherry trees, a red oak, a twisted willow and a Magnolia “Anne Lietner’ were planted. May and June saw more plants being added to the new circular beds by the gates. This is their first season, and they are beginning to become well established. July and August focused on cutting, weeding, deadheading and keeping plants and plantings under control. This is a continual activity. During October, more than 5,000 new bulbs were ordered with most November Sundays spent planting the tulips on several beds and about 12 different types of daffodils in the wildflower garden. The trustees are again very grateful to the Gardening Club for their tireless efforts, and for the contribution of all volunteers for the time they have given during the year. Whilst volunteer hours are not recorded, the number of volunteer hours for this activity is in the region of 1250 hours over the course of the year. ## _Garden Pavilion_ The Garden Pavilion is regularly used for both community and commercial activities. Receipts from lettings are put towards maintenance and running costs including cleaning and replacement of furniture and equipment. Bookings for the Garden Pavilion continue to increase. It is a popular location used for a broad range of community style activities including art and crafts, chess, mahjong, baking, folk music, yoga and dance classes. The air conditioning and ventilation installed at the end of 2024 has improved the ambience of the Pavillion for all users. The trustees would like to record again our gratitude to our volunteer room manager Sylvia Lucas who has looked after supported the considerable administration needed for the Garden Pavilion for many years. Whilst volunteer hours are not recorded, the number of volunteer hours for this activity remains in the region of 400 hours Friends of South Park Gardens Charity registration number 1162459 4 ## _Membership_ Our membership system is fully automated using a recommended third-party provider for small membership organisations – MemberMojo. This has resulted in a simplified system for members and a considerable workload taken away from our volunteers. The membership fee has remained at £10 per household and £5 per individual member for and represents a small investment in a hugely valued local community resource. The previous introduction of a donation button during the renewal process has again been helpful in generating funds. ## _Events_ Our exciting events programme continued in 2025. The popular Easter Egg Hunt in March 2025 whilst not blessed with the uninterrupted sunshine and sell-out crowd of the previous year, was nevertheless well attended and enjoyed by all. The large team of volunteers who helped on the day set out the many “sticks” the children are tasked with collecting, decorated the Park and then fulfilled roles such as the Easter Bunny, taking payments, organising and handing out prizes and running the raffle. Our thanks also to the volunteers who prepared the 300 or so prize bags of chocolate eggs. Our May plant sale was a great success and most plants were sold out within half an hour. Our Summer Picnic was held in June 2025. The marvellous Melodians Steel Orchestra performed again during the afternoon, as well as Crib Notes Choir, Greensleeves Morris Dancers, the plant stall, bar and cake stall were all very popular and appetites were sated by food provided by Bliss in the Park. The income/expenditure from our events is listed in our accounts, attached to this report. ## _Benches_ In the Autumn of 2021, the programme of refurbishment of the benches in the Gardens commenced. In total 35 benches were refurbished. Whilst bench dedications, which have been a valuable source of fundraising, were complete at the end of 2024, enquiries for the dedication of benches continued in 2025. Given the anticipated increase in use of the Gardens the trustees looked into the provision of further benches (of the same type as the present historic replica design) and this enquiry continues. _Duke of Edinburgh Awards_ During the year the Friends assisted a number of local residents with regular volunteering opportunities in South Park Gardens as part of their Duke of Edinburgh award programme. Activities undertaken include litter picking, gardening and event support. ## _Website_ During the latter part of 2025 the trustees initiated work on a new website. That work continued into 2026 and the new website is now up and running and can be found on this link: https://southparkgardens.org/ ## **ADMINISTRATION** The trustees continued to meet during 2025. The trustees’ communication with the membership has been maintained with PDF copies of newsletters sent by email. There have also been regular updates on the Friends’ social media pages. Friends of South Park Gardens Charity registration number 1162459 5 The Gardens are an invaluable community resource, and the level of use continues to pose some issues regarding littering and multiple parties at the weekends - particularly during fine weather and over the summer. The Friends regularly remind all park users to be mindful of each other whilst using the Gardens and to take rubbish home. Recurring administration expenses included insurance, Mailchimp, the domain name and ICO registration. Expenditure on our planting and trees were planned use of our funds and was less than the amount contained in the investment strategy and policy. Debt management for the Garden Pavilion continues to be successful. This has been achieved through the continued use of the automated payment and booking system for all hirers. The debtors list is currently zero. _2025 Full Year Accounts_ The Accounts are attached to this trustee Report. ## _Sponsorship_ We were delighted that Ellisons continued their valuable sponsorship in 2025. They have been involved with South Park Gardens for many years now. This sponsorship helps us fund elements of our events programme. And also provides our members with a discount on their services. ## **TRUSTEES AND VOLUNTEERS** Friends of South Park Gardens is a charity and is run and managed entirely by volunteers. All volunteers give their time and expertise for free which enables us to do what we do safely and to the best of our ability and resources. The trustees would like to record their appreciation for all those who give their time to Friends of South Park Gardens. The chair would also like to record his thanks to all the trustees for their continued significant contribution and commitment to the running of the Friends. ## **CONFIRMATION OF PUBLIC BENEFIT** The trustees confirm that they have complied with their duty to have regard to the guidance on public benefit published by The Charity Commission in exercising their powers or duties. **APPROVED** by the trustees and signed on their behalf by Nicholas Evans. Date: 28 April 2026 Friends of South Park Gardens Charity registration number 1162459 6 STA]ITrILYfoFRF£EIPIS LNI)PA￿l￿7E -Nrte 2024 luc(mic frotn subsct4*K)U Donati)ns Gift aid GTOSS MlC(Mne fr(xn events Sponsorsliip Garden R￿￿ Rent and Takll￿s Bench Pknque (kniatiO￿S llltei'esl Sun(try- ￿llt saks 1.197 36? 1.540 ?70 3.593 4.507 11.(H4 9.505 1.678 3.839 6.54 3.366 893 Expellses of events Garden ro￿ outgongs 111s￿anCe 11 e￿Ite alld newslerter Gen¢ial A(huinistrativ¢ Ovetheads PLqllls pwchased alld new beddiig platLts Ncw trccs pknilcd Fiullitiwe wrchases 1850 1117 2.6?7 1.839 ?02 678 1.194 1583 1.871 4.345 1100 810 1.5340 16.138 SIIIPLUS 6.(H7 7.659 Bakwce bro1￿1t f(Kwatd Ner iicrease ill fullds Raknos Tepamtllg 96.(90 6.(H7 93.478 -5.040 BaLqnce carrrd [￿ard 10) 137 96.0 STA]￿￿￿￿￿￿0FASsEIs ￿}7}1￿ABlLr[ll￿5 2024 Cash ai banks_ cutrent account - dewsti acc(R]nt -pawal acco￿1 19.514 169?1 78.775 395 Trade delxors T￿21 assets 102.137 96.0 bvk Gardens Chatity registration number 1162459 Um'estsicied ftwds 101 137 96.0 **THE FRIENDS OF SOUTH PARK GARDENS NOTES 1. Basis of preparation** The accounts have been prepared in accordance with the receipts and payments basis of accounting as permitted by the Statement of Recommended Practice 'Accounting by Charities' issued by the Charity Commission for smaller charities. Thus income includes amounts reimbursed by the London Borough of Merton relating to previous years and expenses include items where the relevant income has been recognised in earlier years. Friends of South Park Gardens Charity registration number 1162459 8