Residents of a Bermondsey estate have transformed a disused football pitch on the site into a community garden, including an orchard for a school to use as an outdoor classroom.
At long last the Rouel Road Estate has a new green space to use after residents helped turn a disused football pitch into a community garden.
Karen Gregory, one of the people involved, explained this had been a few years in the making.
“In 2020, Kathy Heather, who lives here, thought about developing parts of the green space next to the estate into allotments and an orchard,” Karen said.
With the help of local councillors Leo Pollak and Rachel Bentley, Kathy applied to Southwark Council Cleaner Greener Safer Fund to create allotments on the disused football pitch at the corner of St James Road and Alexis Street.
“We helped to develop the plan to divide the space, keeping half as a dog exercise area and building raised beds for a community garden in the other half,” Karen continued.
With the help of Urban Growth, they built 22 raised beds, installing a water supply, water tanks, compost bins and a shipping container for tool storage, all surrounded by a beautiful strip of grassland covered in wildflowers.
The orchard, complete with 24 fruit trees, was planted by Rouel Blue Garden Club and Trees for Bermondsey next to the adjoining St. James’s Primary School.
It will be open to all, and the school will be able to use it as an outdoor classroom and extra play area when the weather is good. The Garden Club, the Rouel Road TRA and the estate maintenance team will tend to it.
The trees and hedges were provided by the council.
The garden officially opened last weekend, when the first twenty people signed up for their plots.
Karen explained that they were oversubscribed for people wanting a space.
For people on the waiting list for a plot of their own, there are three communal beds they can use.”
They are having an open gardening session this Saturday, June 3, between 11 am and 1 pm.
They were supported by the Southwark Council Community Gardening team (Ruth Arnott, Sophie Dawson and Orsetta Hosquet) who support residents on Southwark housing estates to set up and run new food growing spaces.
