Park no longer locked at night during pilot

Lambeth Council has confirmed that Ruskin Park will no longer be locked at night from Monday 18th May 2026, as part of a nine-month pilot.

The following information has been provided to us by the Parks team:

“Under the Byelaws, access to the park will be prohibited outside of the park opening times which will also be advertised on the main gates. The exception to this will be for the following authorised uses:

• • • accessing the community sauna
    • walking through the park along the main path between Denmark Hill and Northway Road
    • [and potentially accessing floodlit sports facilities should that come to fruition].

We appreciate that local opinions are divided over this and whilst many will be happy to have the park open for access reasons, other local residents are concerned about potential increases in ASB.

Over the past couple of years we have trialled stopping locking a number of other sites including Brockwell Park, Kennington Park, Hillside Gardens Park, Tivoli Park, Myatt’s Fields Park, Palace Road Nature Garden, Lambeth Cemetery and Streatham Cemetery.

In most cases local residents expressed concern about ASB, however these worries proved unfounded and there was no noticeable increase in crime or ASB within the sites themselves. The only exception being Streatham Cemetery in Tooting where we decided to reinstate locking gates during the trial  because of a very specific and significant issue arising and due to the sensitivity of the location.

The situation will be reviewed at the end of the nine months, and we would encourage residents to send feedback at any time to parks@lambeth.gov.uk.”