AUGUST 2007

JUBILEE CELEBRATIONS ARE SPOILED BY THREAT TO COURSE

Braeside Golf Club celebrated its 60^th anniversary this year. The Club, which since 1947 has played over the 18 hole public golf course at Beckenham Place Park, celebrated with a series of Jubilee Competitions at the August Bank Holiday. Highlights were the special Jubilee Competition on the Saturday, where over 90 present and past members took part in a unique ‘synchronised start’ – so organised that all players finished their round within minutes of each other – and Captains’ Day on the Sunday, where a similar number of current members took part. The events were blessed with wonderful weather – particularly appreciated by players and families alike at the after-competition barbeque and buffets held at the adjoining Foxgrove Club.

 

In a cruel twist of irony 2007 – this year of anniversary celebration – is also marked by news of Lewisham Council’s intentions to impose major changes in the park. The mansion, so long the focal point of this beautiful and much-loved park, has for many years suffered neglect and is high on English Heritage’s ‘Buildings at Risk’ Register. Unwilling to spend money on the building, the Council proposes to dispose of the mansion and a substantial parcel of the land surrounding it. The effects of this proposal would be to change completely the golf course. Instead of offering the only 18 hole public course within any inner London borough, the course would be reduced in size to 9 holes and the council is currently considering the report of a Feasibility Study it commissioned earlier this year to explore this 9 hole option.