Ruskin Park is a park in the London Borough of Lambeth,

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

, England, close to Camberwell,

Loughborough Junction Loughborough Junction is an area of South London, in the London Borough of Lambeth, which is located equidistant between Brixton, Camberwell and Herne Hill. Loughborough Junction is centred on a rail junction consisting of seven railway ...

and

Herne Hill Herne Hill is a district in South London, approximately four miles from Charing Cross and bordered by Brixton, Camberwell, Dulwich, and Tulse Hill. It sits to the north and east of Brockwell Park and straddles the boundary between the borou ...

History

At the start of the 20th century local residents successfully campaigned for a new public park on 24 acres of land on Denmark Hill, and it opened to the public on 2 February 1907. The park was laid out by the notable parks designer Lt-Col

JJ Sexby John James Sexby VD (known as JJ Sexby) (15 July 1847 – 10 May 1924) was a British civil servant who served as the first Chief Officer for Parks for the London County Council from 1892 to 1909, and was responsible for the creation of many of Lo ...

. Sexby's design included an Old English Garden, an oval duck pond, a bandstand and a bowling green. The bowling green has been replaced by a garden, but the other features remain. In 1910 Ruskin Park was enlarged by the addition of a further 12 acres (5 ha) to the south west. The existing houses on the site were demolished when the park was created. One of these was Dane House, where, in 1842, Felix Mendelssohn composed '' Spring Song''. There is a sundial in the park commemorating Mendelssohn's visit. The former entrance porch to one of the demolished houses remains in the park, and is Grade II listed. The park is named after

John Ruskin John Ruskin (8 February 1819 20 January 1900) was an English writer, philosopher, art critic and polymath of the Victorian era. He wrote on subjects as varied as geology, architecture, myth, ornithology, literature, education, botany and pol ...

(1819–1900), a poet, writer and a major champion of diverse green spaces as well as of the Arts and Crafts movement, who lived nearby from 1823 to 1871. He gives his name equally to a

university A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States ...

college A college (Latin: ''collegium'') is an educational institution or a constituent part of one. A college may be a degree-awarding tertiary educational institution, a part of a collegiate or federal university, an institution offerin ...

museum A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make thes ...

and

square In Euclidean geometry, a square is a regular quadrilateral, which means that it has four equal sides and four equal angles (90- degree angles, π/2 radian angles, or right angles). It can also be defined as a rectangle with two equal-length a ...

. During

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, recruits of the 21st Battalion, London Regiment (First Surrey Rifles) based at nearby Flodden Road in Camberwell, trained in the park. In 1967, the rock band Pink Floyd used Ruskin Park for their first official photoshoot.

Facilities and features

It has a playground, nature area, tennis court, basketball court, football and cricket pitches, and pond. There is a Friends of Ruskin Park group. There is a mural of a

common toad The common toad, European toad, or in Anglophone parts of Europe, simply the toad (''Bufo bufo'', from Latin ''bufo'' "toad"), is a frog found throughout most of Europe (with the exception of Ireland, Iceland, and some Mediterranean islands), in ...

on a wall in the park by street artist ATM, which was commissioned by the charity

Froglife Froglife is a British wildlife charity committed to the conservation of amphibians and reptiles and their associated habitats. The charity aims to encourage as many people as possible, from all walks of life, to get involved in wildlife conserva ...

. Ruskin Park is open from 7.00am to 15 minutes before sunset every day.

References

{{Parks and open spaces in London Parks and open spaces in the London Borough of Lambeth Named after John Ruskin who lived with his wife Effie in Denmark Hill