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Find a Southwark park and get to know its facilities and history.

Contents

Burgess Park

Opening times

Burgess Park is open at all times.

Location

The park is located at Albany Road, SE5.

Entrances to the park include:

  • Albany Road
  • Old Kent Road
  • Chumleigh Street
  • Wells Way

How to get there

You can travel by:

  • car, a car park is available on Albany Road 8am to 6pm
  • bike, store your bike at Chumleigh Gardens off Albany Road
  • tube, Elephant and Castle
  • bus, Old Kent Road entrance 53, 63, 78,168, 172, 363, 453, Camberwell Road entrance 12, 35, 40, 45, 68, 468, Albany Road entrance 42, 343

Find accessibility information for Burgess Park Tennis Centre.

Facilities and features

The park offers:

  • toilets located at Chumleigh Gardens, Tennis pavilion/café at Addington Square, Burgess Park Sports Centre on Cobourg Road, BMX track and next to the fishing lake
  • colourful, state-of-the-art play and climbing equipment situated in front of the Stomping Ground at Chumleigh Gardens for children up to the age of 14; separate play areas for children under and over five years; during the summer we offer water play jets at Chumleigh Gardens
  • a lake located near Old Kent Road and Albany Road; fishing is permitted with the purchase of a day ticket from dawn to dusk on half of the lake; dogs must be kept on a lead to avoid them jumping in
  • Chumleigh Gardens, the renowned world gardens are designed to reflect traditional English, Asian, Mediterranean, Oriental and Caribbean planting; there are raised beds for community gardeners to grow vegetables; free to visit; keep dogs on a lead
  • Glengall Wharf Garden, the Burgess Park food growing project is situated at Glengall Wharf Garden and runs a wide variety of activities throughout the week; email burgessfoodproject@gmail.com for further details
  • Outdoor cooking facilities in the summer months (closing for 2024 on 27 October)

Sports facilities

Burgess Park has two full-size artificial grass pitches, grass cricket pitch, grass rugby pitch, seven tennis courts, fishing, a BMX track, and an outdoor gym.

  • the sports centre (accessed from Cobourg Road) – supports a range of activity including football, rugby and cricket for all ages; both natural grass and artificial grass are available. To enquire about space and the applicable fees email sportbookings@southwark.gov.uk  
  • tennis courts are located close to Addington Square and Camberwell Road – and open daily between 7am and 10pm. Information about bookings and fees - book a tennis court 
  • fishing - for details of angling within Burgess Park
  • running – a 5km route around the park marked with butterfly symbols painted on the pathway and recycled iron markers (register with parkrun for weekly time trialled runs)
  • The BMX Track London – is a 400 metre BMX national standard track that is open regularly until 9pm (all are welcome subject to an induction process)
  • view our Burgess Park activities (PDF, 1.4MB) to find out more

About the park

At 56 hectares, Burgess Park is Southwark's largest park. The park stretches from Camberwell and Walworth in the west to Peckham and the Old Kent Road in the east.

Burgess Park is a young park built between the 1950s and 1980s. It was developed in 1943 as part of the Abercrombie Plan for open spaces. The area was once home to factories, densely populated streets, and the Surrey Canal before it was badly bombed during World War II.

The park was named after Councillor Jessie Burgess, Camberwell's first woman Mayor in 1973.

In 2012, Burgess Park re-opened after an £8m transformation, establishing it as a park central to the local community and recognised for its heritage, sports facilities, lake, wildlife, design and horticultural and even barbecues.

Find more information

How to use the electric cooking area

Opening times

The electric hotplates are now closed for the winter.

How to cook on the hotplate

  1. Press and hold the button until it beeps or starts to flash red.
  2. After three to seven minutes the hotplate should be hot enough to use. It will beep, and the button will change from flashing red, to green. That means it’s time to cook.
  3. You’ll have 20 minutes to cook. The hotplate shuts off automatically after this time.

You can turn off the hotplate at any time by pressing the button for only 3 seconds. Please check that it is off.

The metal plate gets hot. Please do not touch!

Watch our hotplate tutorial video

What to do if there's a problem

If the button starts flashing red and green, or the hotplate isn’t working, call: 020 7525 2000 or email parks@southwark.gov.uk. We will respond as soon as possible.

If you need non-emergency health assistance dial 101.

Outdoor cooking area guidelines

The outdoor cooking area is a community space. Please leave it in a good condition for other people to use.

You can use the hotplates on a first come, first-served basis.

Be mindful of others by letting everyone have their turn to cook.

We recommend from 20 minutes to two hours per group.

Safety and hygiene

You must:

  • only put food and foil trays on the hotplate. Never put anything else on the hotplate as it could damage the surface
  • make sure the hotplate is clean before and after cooking
  • before cleaning, ensure the hotplate is off and cool. You can use the scraper attached to the hotplate with a little bottled water to clean. Please do not use anything metal to clean the hotplate as this could scratch it
  • cook meat thoroughly
  • wait until the hotplate has cooled down before you leave it unattended.
  • leave the area clean for the next person to use. You can use the litter bins for your rubbish. To help us reduce the amount of rubbish we dispose of, please take home what you can

Disposable BBQs can’t be used here or anywhere else in the park.

Map of the area in the park between Albany Road, Wells Way and Chumleigh Gardens. The toilets are located to the north west corner of Chumleigh Gardens. The drinking fountain is between Chumleigh Gardens and the play area.

Accessible route to toilets and fountain (tarmac) shown in blue
Less accessible route to toilets and fountain (gravel) shown in red

Toilets and water

There is a drinking water fountain near the play area at Chumleigh Gardens where you can wash your hands.

Toilets are located near the play area at Chumleigh Gardens. They are open from 8am to half an hour before dusk.

Burgess Park Community Sports Centre

Address

106 Cobourg Road 

London, SE5

Contact info

You can:

Opening times

  • Monday to Friday, 9am to 10pm
  • Saturday and Sunday, 9.30am to 8pm

Facilities

  • two full-size artificial grass pitches, available to book in quarter (five-a-side), half (seven or nine-a-side) or full-size spaces (11-a-side football and 15-a-side rugby)
  • a single outdoor basketball court
  • grass cricket and rugby pitch
  • cricket practice nets
  • changing rooms
  • meeting room

Bookings

To book:

Volunteer at Burgess Park

It's a great time to get involved with exciting horticultural projects happening in Chumleigh and across the park. Whether you're an experienced gardener or a beginner, you can join our team for various gardening activities from propagating plants to food growing, weeding, pruning and mulching.

Events and activities

  • Burgess Park Food Project, food growing located at Glengall Wharf Garden, Surrey Canal; Sundays 1pm to 3pm, Tuesdays 2pm to 4pm and Thursdays 1pm to 4pm
  • Herb Tuesdays - 11am to 4pm (lunch at 1pm)
  • Burgess food group - sociable meet-up on Sundays for food growing and tasty homegrown, homemade refreshments
  • Grown in Peckham - learn how to grow, harvest and box food for local restaurants on Thursdays
  • Friends of Burgess Park - hold regular activities including practical conservation and gardening, heritage walks and talks and cultural events; volunteers are always welcome to get involved

Groups

If you're a local school, community group or business and would like to organise a group activity in Burgess Park, we can help. We support forest schools, team building planting or conservation activities.

If you'd like to join the volunteer mailing list or for more information, email peter.golding@southwark.gov.uk or phone 020 7525 3645 or 07960 311499.