A long-awaited ‘community building’ with a public roof terrace offering expansive views across Elephant Park opened on Monday, July 25.
’The Tree House’, a timber building at the centre of the park, is a hireable events space available to both the local community and corporations.
The leader of Southwark Council, Councillor Kieron Williams and Mayor of Southwark, Sunil Chopra, cut the ribbon, officially opening the space.
To celebrate the opening, developers Lendease organised a day of free community activities including yoga, face-painting and crafts.
Kristy Lansdown, Lendlease Project Director for Elephant Park said: “Our team have created an architecturally striking and sustainable pavilion in the heart of the park, which provides somewhere to enjoy nature, relax with a coffee under the canopy of the beautiful London Plane trees, host events, meet friends or just sit and watch the world go by.
“We hope it will become a welcoming space within our wonderful new park and become a much-valued asset for the community.”
The internal building is available for community hire at a discounted rate, from £25 per hour to £150 per full day, with corporate events expected to pay double that. The terrace is also available for hire.
Local coffee business, Hana Coffee, run by Abraham Tzeggai and his wife Hana Zewdi, has also moved in.
It serves coffees, snacks and alcoholic beverages from the building’s cafe kiosk and will cater for events hosted at ‘The Tree House’.
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The pavilion sits at the centre of Elephant Park, a two acre green space built as part of Lendlease’s £2.3 billion regeneration scheme.
Lendlease says ‘The Tree House’ has been built sustainably using cross-laminated timber (CLT) alongside sustainably-sourced timber cladding and bamboo decking.