See that bunny, there? We call him Cedric. He lives in Clissold Park.
It’s a nice place to live. His neighbours are a group of fallow deer and some pygmy goats. When he’s not eating celery Cedric enjoys watching the children splishing about in the paddling pool, listening out for the twitterings from the nearby aviary and the pock, thwack from the tennis courts and feeling very glad that the thousands of dogs that are walked in the park every day can’t get at him.
What Cedric doesn’t know yet is that Clissold Park is so nice and so popular with its community that Hackney Council has won a smashing £4.5 million grant from the Big Lottery Fund’s “Parks for People” regeneration scheme to completely refurbish the 52 acres (ponds, animal enclosures, paddling pool and all) and restore the beautiful but neglected Grade II listed mansion house. Hackney will invest a further £2.5 million in the project to conserve and improve the much loved park for future generations. In which case, we reckon Cedric might get a new hutch.
Even better, the start up funding for developing the project plans insists on the involvement of local residents and users, so if you want to have a say in shaping this amazing development for north London green space then go along to the public meeting in Stoke Newington on 18 April.
We can’t wait to tell the rabbit.
Admire Cedric’s manor on the Clissold Park Flickr Pool visit the Clissold Park User Group website or pootle up to Stokey and visit the fat, fluffy bunny yourself.
