Ominously, the fencing was up in the middle of last week. By Thursday the digger and portaloo were in, and a couple of trees lay uprooted on their sides. On Friday the fun started and, like a Magnus Mills protagonist,  the one man and his digger had taken up the gravel pit/football pitch and had shifted its surface into two big piles. This week all digging hell has broken loose; loads of turf has gone and it looks like the contours are being flattened out.

Usually projects like this will have a sign up somewhere, proudly proclaiming the forthcoming improvements to the local area. But here there is nothing.

I googled a bit and all I can find on the fantastic www.vauxhallandkennington.org.uk is the following:

A group of developers (”The Vauxhall Alliance”) had their eyes on Spring Gardens - the large area of Council-owned open land just north east of Vauxhall Cross - and came up with a number of proposals for building on the land in return (they said) for making the whole area more attractive, releasing land nearby and so on. One project “Project Vauxhall” involved redeveloping the Ethelred and China Walk Estates. Local residents were opposed to this and all similar proposals, and Lambeth Council’s latest plan says that:

“Spring Gardens is an important local open space which was the historic location of the famous Vauxhall Gardens. It needs significant improvement. At night there are safety concerns with its use.
There are development sites around Spring Gardens, which, if planned and designed to enhance Spring Gardens, and if they contribute to enhancing it, have the potential to transform it into a quality public open space;
The Council has previously been in discussions with a developer about proposals to develop much of Spring Gardens as a leisure, multiplex and retail facility – with improvements to the remainder of Spring Gardens. This would not, in planning terms, be an appropriate development for this land, in the light of changing national policy, the London Plan, emerging regeneration initiatives for Vauxhall and the new interchange proposals. Exclusivity agreements for this site will not be renewed.”

Although I have no idea how old this news is. The Lambeth Council website says nothing on the subject. A phone call might be in order.