Barnsbury Community Garden opens

2nd Sep 2016

Since 2014 over 500 volunteers, led by staff at Barnsbury Community Centre in Islington, began transforming the unused space behind the Centre to create a new community garden and enhance green space across the estate. The project benefited from the skills of architecture and urban regeneration students assisting with the design, as well as individuals and corporate partners who helped with the construction.

The garden is also home to an allotment area, where food growing and horticultural activities will take place.

On Thursday 25th August Newlon’s Community Services team hosted the official opening of the garden. Over 60 people gathered to celebrate and give a big thank you to everyone who helped create this valuable new communal space. The event included light entertainment, refreshments and a summer barbeque.

By undertaking this project we aimed to create a ‘green-hub’ that is accessible to all residents to increase community integration, develop partnerships between local community groups and authorities on green initiatives, and increase participation in horticulture, food growing and healthy eating. We hope this has helped to achieve these goals.

At the opening we announced the winner of a raffle for tickets to Kew Gardens. All proceeds from the raffle will be used for food growing activities for residents.

To find out more about how you can get involved in the Barnsbury Community Garden, email community.services@newlon.org.uk or call 020 7033 4605.