Furious Primrose Hill residents blast ‘grotesque’ determination to fence off park to cease New Year’s Eve revellers watching fireworks

The decision to fence off Primrose Hill for this year’s New Year’s Eve fireworks has been met with anger by local residents.

The royal park offers panoramic views of central London and in recent years has become a popular site for people to see in the new year.

In 2024, an estimated 30,000 people celebrated New Year’s Eve there – but this year it is shut for the first time, with the gates locked from 8pm on Tuesday until 6am on New Year’s Day. 

Areas of the park have been cordoned off with solid green hoarding, while other parts have just the temporary fencing to prevent would-be spectators from entering. 

The closure of the park comes after the Metropolitan Police disbanded the capital’s Royal Parks unit in November in an effort to help plug a £260million funding gap. 

The Met Police has claimed it is ‘not accurate to suggest’ the decision to shut Primrose Hill was necessary because the Royal Parks policing team was disbanded. 

There have been growing concerns about the safety at the park following the fatal stabbing of 16-year-old Harry Pitman on New Year’s Eve 2023.  

However, people living near Primrose Hill have described the decision to close the park as an ‘unprecedented’ measure.

Amy McKeown, a local resident, said she left the area on Monday to celebrate New Year’s Eve with family elsewhere.

‘It is too grotesque to see,’ she said.

Ms McKeown, who is part of the Primrose Hill Keepers volunteer group, added: ‘The park has never been closed like this.

‘This is completely unprecedented.

‘This is a public park where people should be able to come to watch the fireworks. 

‘This is exactly what we should be encouraging people to do.’ 

Catherine Usiskin, who has lived in Primrose Hill for more than 40 years, said the fencing around the park was ‘an overreaction’.

‘It’s just ridiculous,’ she said.

‘It’s such an over-reaction. You can’t close down society.’

Ms Usiskin said that Primrose Hill, part of which is in Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s constituency, has become a lot more crowded since she began living there.

‘I understand it’s more difficult to police,’ she said. ‘But since the pandemic there has been hysteria over Primrose Hill.’

She said the closure will be harmful to restaurants and pubs in the area, but believes people will still try to gather in the park by climbing over the fencing.

Ms McKeown said the hoarding is similar to barriers used at Glastonbury.

‘The 2024 was successfully policed and went by without incident,’ she added.

‘We have gone from an open event to a huge amount of resource being used to keep people out of the park.’

The Metropolitan Police announced in November that it would disband the Royal Parks police, which helped respond to serious crime in green spaces including Hyde Park and Primrose Hill.

But, a spokesperson for the force said: ‘The decision to close Primrose Hill on New Year’s Eve is one taken by the Royal Parks, not the police.

‘It is not accurate to suggest the decision was necessary as a result of the disbanding of the Royal Parks policing team.

‘Officers from that team made up just 15 of the more than 145 officers who were deployed to Primrose Hill on New Year’s Eve last year. This is similar to the makeup of deployments in previous years.’

Commander Nick John, who is charge of the Met’s New Year’s Eve policing, said: ‘The Royal Parks are urging people not to try to gather at Primrose Hill this year and we would echo those calls.

‘Please make alternative plans. Anyone trying to access the park will find that it is not possible.’ 

The Royal Parks charity, which manages Primrose Hill, previously said that the capacity to manage crowds of the size usually watching the fireworks event would be ‘severely diminished’ in part due to the closure of The Metropolitan Police’s Royal Parks Operational Command Unit.

A spokesperson for the charity said on Monday: ‘The decision to close Primrose Hill on New Year’s Eve was not taken lightly. Last year an estimated 30,000 people visited Primrose Hill to view the Mayor of London’s New Year’s Eve firework display.

‘This was not an organised event with an event organiser but a gathering in open parkland and we have limited controls that we can deploy to ensure public safety. Therefore, we have decided that Primrose Hill will be closed and locked from 8pm on December 30 until January 1.

‘We have been working closely with the Metropolitan Police by encouraging anyone without a ticket to the Mayor of London’s New Year’s Eve fireworks to make alternative arrangements.’ 

Scotland Yard confirmed there would be a police presence in Primrose Hill to ‘respond to criminality’ but added that preventing access to the park is not its responsibility.

The Royal Parks declined to comment further.

The decision to disband the Royal Park unit has led to fears that London’s lawless parks will be further ravaged by crime. 

Criminal incidents reported in the parks increased by around a third from 76 in the year 2022/23 to 101 in 2023/24, according to the Royal Parks’ latest annual report.

The murder of Harry Pitman remains the most high profile violent crime to have taken place on Primrose Hill on New Year’s Eve.

The schoolboy was in Primrose Hill to watch the fireworks display when Areece Lloyd-Hall, 18, stabbed him in the neck.

He was jailed for a minimum of 16 years in November.

The fatal incident appeared to have been sparked by a scuffle between Harry and one of the defendant’s friends shortly after 11.30pm.

Lloyd-hall had pushed forward and lunged at Harry with a pointed dagger, metres from where uniformed police officers were stationed.

In mobile phone footage played in court, a knife sheath was seen to fly through the air during the fast-paced incident.

Harry held his neck, his white T-shirt covered in blood, as he pushed through crowds calling to officers for ‘help’.

He collapsed and died minutes later, shortly before midnight. 

The knife scabbard was left at the scene and was found to have the defendant’s DNA on it.

After a media appeal, Lloyd-Hall went to Hammersmith police station with his father on January 4 2024.

At his trials, college student Lloyd-Hall, who was 16 at the time, claimed he thought he had only hit Harry with the sheath in an attempt to get Harry away from him.

He said he ran off not realising what had happened because he was holding a knife and knew there were police officers nearby.

Meanwhile, terrified cyclists have become the victims of a swathe of violent robberies which has seen them threatened with hammers and sharp objects.

Preying on the groups, the often expensive bikes are regularly snatched by armed, balaclava-clad men on motorcycles, leaving cyclists petrified to go out in the capital. 

The muggers have been operating in Regent’s Park where more than 30 cycling clubs meet between 5.45am and 7am each day before the area opens to cars.

Hyde Park, which is the most visited of London’s royal parks and hosts events such as Winter Wonderland and the British Summer Time concert series, has seen a rise in crime in recent years.

In June this year, a defiant woman fought off a man riding an e-bike as he tried to grab her handbag in the park near Hyde Park Corner Underground station. 

The hoodie-wearing man was seen in a video on a path as he approached two women from behind, and tried to grab one of the pair’s handbags.

But the woman appeared to have heard him coming towards her. As he tried to snatch the bag, she managed to cling on to her possessions and he sped off.

In another horrifying incident in June 2021, onlookers watched as a man was chased through Hyde Park by a gang wielding machetes before being hacked to the ground.

Shocking footage showed a sprawling confrontation between a large group of youths and what appeared to be a single victim in a black tracksuit.

As members of the public fled, the gang pursued the victim through the park before he slipped and fell to the ground enabling them to punch and kick him in the head. 

Other serious crimes reported in the parks include mobile phone snatching, drug dealing and sexual offences.