Richmond Council is undertaking some tree planting in and near the play area of North Sheen Rec. A Corylus corlurna and a Carpinus betulus ‘fastigiata’ have been ordered from for planting in the locations above. Please email friendsnsr@gmail.com if you have any questions or comments that we can send on to the council. 

We are reviving Friends of North Sheen Rec! 

More details in the poster below. Please do come and say hello and find out how you can get involved.

The Rec awarded a Green Flag Award for being an excellent park 

• A welcoming place
• Healthy, safe and secure
• Clean + well-maintained
• Sustainability
• Conservation + heritage
• Community involvement
• Marketing
• Management

Rec Paths Re-surfaced

June 2018 - Following lobbying from the Friends organisation, Richmond Council re-surfaced the badly damaged paths by the Marksbury Road entrance and around the junior playground were re-surfaced; the related drainage was also renewed by Richmond Council.

Macmillan Coffee Morning in the Pavilion Cafe in the Rec  

Easter Egg Hunt!

Our first Easter Egg Hunt took place on the same day as Storm Katie descended in 2016, causing chaos around the UK. Amazingly, here in Kew, the weather cleared up just in time and the sun actually came out. We had around 35 children take part throughout the morning with their parents, all winning eggs that were kindly donated by Sutcliffe Play, the company that supplied and installed the new playground equipment. Many thanks to Katy Robins, who organised this event and to several other Friends who provided vital help in preparing and running the activity.

WW1 Commemorative Map in the café

In July 2015, the Friends of North Sheen Recreation Ground ran a Community Event that included a commemoration of the servicemen who lived around our Rec and lost their lives in the First world War. 

Friends plant Spring bulbs in the Rec

Having Spring bulbs in the Rec is very important to the Friends Group and Rec users. We know that from the rec users survey that was carried out in 2013, where more flowers was a top-three improvement requested, the other top three being less dog mess and more benches.

It was great that in 2016 we were been successful in our bid for free bulbs from the Metropolitan Public Gardens Association and Taylors Bulbs of Hornbeach. They distribute surplus bulbs at the end of the season to public locations. Richmond Council gave the Friends Group permission to plant spring bulbs in the existing flowerbeds and in areas of uncut grass.

Because the bulbs are a free gift at the end of the season, when they arrived we had to act fast to get them in the ground before the winter frosts came. A couple of Friends had worked out a planting plan and this week a group met in the Rec and got to work on planting the bulbs.

Our free bulbs included a wide selection, including daffodils varieties such as Winston Churchill, Tête-à-tête and Canaliculatis, hyacinth, grape hyacinth, star of Bethlehem and tulips. We’ve planted in single-variety naturalistic drifts around the Rec. More than 300 bulbs were planted – we hope as many as possible will come up and look forward to the pleasure of seeing them in the Spring.

Hopefully Richmond Council will be renovating some of the flowerbeds further later in the year and we hope we will be able to see some flowers in the Rec for most of the year. 

Many thanks to all Friends who helped in this venture, whether it was applying for the bulbs, planning the planting or doing the digging – your help is much appreciated by us all!

You can see the planting and the growing bulbs progress via the album on our Facebook page. Please like the page.

If you’d like to help improve our Rec in ways like this, please join the Friends organisation. 

Renovation of the Rec Playgrounds 

2015 - Work started on the refurbishmen of our lovely playgrounds. If you would like to get involved with what is happening at our lovely park, please consider joining Friends of North Sheen Rec. For more pictures of work as it progresses, visit our Facebook page.

Kew Dance Arts now offer dance classes in the Pavilion. This is an exciting development and we are thrilled to welcome this company, which has established classes already at St Luke's, to the park. More details on our activities page.

WW1 Commemorative Event & Community Day

This Friends event took place in 2015; it included:

This photograph was taken early in the day. The tent soon became packed with dozens of children working with our committee member Katy on face painting and other crafts. Darell School lent us the gazebo and tables and half the money raised from the kids' activities went to Darell School playground fund. You can donate to the fund here.

A local historian tells us what life was like at the time of WW1.  

Friends chair Sue Burden explains the great courage and sacrifice of so many young men who lived around North Sheen Rec in Kew at the time of World War One.