William Clarke Park, better known as The Patch, is a public park in Brighton, England, which was opened in the late 20th century. The park has a sports area, which contains a basketball hoop and a football goal, a children's playground and a pond among other things. It can be accessed by paths from Hartington Road, Picton Street and Franklin Street.

History

After the

Kemp Town branch line Kemp Town branch line was a railway line running from Brighton to Kemptown in the UK that operated between 1869 and 1971. It ran from a junction off the Brighton to Lewes line between London Road and Moulsecoomb stations, to Kemp Town railway ...

closed in 1971, the former railway cutting—a long and narrow area of land between Hartington Road and Elm Grove—became available for redevelopment.

Labour Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

councillor and former Mayor of Brighton William Clarke led a campaign to lay out a recreational area to serve the Elm Grove and Lewes Road areas, which are underprovided with open space. Landfill was used on the cutting to create the park. The park opened in the 1980s and has been looked after by a community group, the Friends of William Clarke Park, since 1995. It is one of several parks in the city where the council can arrange for people to plant a commemorative tree. In March 2017, the park had a £53,000 makeover, which forced it to close for a few days. It replaced lots of fencing, resurfaced paths, and improved drainage systems, as well as giving the park better play equipment.

Patchfest

Patchfest is an annual community

festival A festival is an event ordinarily celebrated by a community and centering on some characteristic aspect or aspects of that community and its religion or cultures. It is often marked as a local or national holiday, mela, or eid. A festival ...

in the park, which is run by volunteers and organised by the Friends of William Clarke group. The festival has live music and many stalls which contain games, food and drink or other things which are being sold. On 8 May 2020, during the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

, there was a virtual Patchfest to replace the in person festival, as restrictions at the time did not allow in-person meetings.

History

Patchfest

References

Bibliography

See also