London is soon ready to open a new public park, said to be the biggest to open since the Olympics. The park will soon be welcoming visitors as part of a huge £150 million hospital revamp project.
The new mental health facilities at the centre of the Springfield University Hospital redevelopment are now almost ready to open, an NHS trust has confirmed. Spanning 32 acres, the site's new green space in Tooting will have a pavilion café, amphitheatre, gardens, children's playgrounds, ponds, a new footbridge and a youth shelter, My London has reported.
There will also be areas for football, rugby and cricket teams to play. It will be joined on the Springfield Village development by two new mental health facilities which will soon open to the public. There will also be a care home, shops and more than 800 homes - plus space for a new school.
The project from South West London and St George's Mental Health NHS Trust to transform Springfield Hospital and provide new world-class mental health facilities was approved in 2020. Phillip Murray, director of finance and performance at the trust, said the hospital will be "very much at the centre" of the development in efforts to destigmatise mental health. He told Wandsworth Council's health committee on November 14 the new facilities will be among the best in the country.
He said: "What we’re obviously trying to do here is to break down the stigma of mental health. All of us at one time or other will experience some kind of stress and anxiety and, of course, we know that a quarter of the population will probably need medical intervention of one kind or another during their lives for mental ill health."
He added: "There will be a 32-acre park, so other than the Olympic Village opening I think this will be the biggest park that’s been opened in London in time immemorial - certainly for people my age, we won’t know any other parks that have opened of this size. So it’s something very much that we believe will be good for the community and good for Wandsworth borough."
Mr Murray said the trust is hoping to open the first mental health facility next month and the second in the New Year.
He added: "What we are rather hoping is that the new hospital that we’re building here, and will obviously open shortly, and the hope for development at Tolworth Hospital in Kingston will encourage more staff to want to work with us - being that it will be the newest and most modern mental health facilities in the country."
The new park is expected to open to the public in three phases between the spring of 2023 and the summer of 2025.
