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Saving Peterborough’s Green Backyard: 'It's a point of stillness in a crazy world' | Cities | The Guardian
Saving Peterborough’s Green Backyard: 'It's a point of stillness in a crazy world' A derelict site in Peterborough’s city centre was transformed into a vibrant community garden by volunteers, yet is still under threat of redevelopment. Artist Jessie Brennan shares the voices of those defending their right to the city
‘If This Were to Be Lost’ (2016), by Jessie Brennan, shows The Green Backyard in Peterborough’s city centre
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Jessie Brennan Thursday 3 November 2016 07.30 GMT
I
first set foot in The Green Backyard in May 2014, when the threat of a proposed development on the site by its owner, Peterborough city council, was imminent. While that threat is ongoing, the voices that resist it are stronger still.
The Green Backyard is situated on a publicly owned, 2.3-acre strip of land in Peterborough city centre. Founded in 2009 by Renny Antonelli and his daughter Sophie, it has been transformed with the help of volunteers from a former derelict allotment site into a thriving community growing project. But this is not simply a place of rest and repose from which to escape the world. It is a site for critical thought and action, in which democratic struggles for the “right to the city” are voiced, https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/nov/03/community-save-public-land-peterborough-green-backyard
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Saving Peterborough’s Green Backyard: 'It's a point of stillness in a crazy world' | Cities | The Guardian
contested and fought for. Inside its imposing metal gates (built to protect “what the people inside love”, says one volunteer) is a spontaneous ordering of the land which has grown out of negotiations. You pass several shipping containers, an orchard, a wildflower meadow, a pond, a collection of sheds and a caravan before reaching a large vegetable garden sheltered by a hazel hedge, fruit bushes and several willow arches. Next to this is the social heart: the cob oven, picnic benches, a covered outdoor area, and the “Hub” building. Nearby is the children’s play area, and towards the back of the site are the compost toilet and pee bales, the animals and the polytunnels.
Jessie Brennan ‘Ashtray’: cyanotype from Inside The Green Backyard (Opportunity Area), 2015 16
What brought me to The Green Backyard – a charitable incorporated organisation run by an elected board of trustees – were questions of land ownership and value, framed by the long history of community land rights struggles. Of course, feelings of belonging to a place in no way necessarily mean it belongs to you, as visitors, volunteers and trustees here are all too well aware. Peterborough is one of the fastest growing cities in the UK, fuelled by a £1bn regeneration scheme in the form of a city centre plan that sets out major changes for its future over the next 15 years. In keeping with the rest of the UK, this economic growth has produced many benefits for this city, but it has also created deep inequalities. In Peterborough as elsewhere, the “financialisation” of land and property means that regeneration plans and development proposals purporting to foster diverse and creative new neighbourhoods typically displace precisely the qualities, activities and communities they claim to support. Framed by the austerity politics of successive governments, and reinforced by cuts to local authorities, the apparent need and justification for redevelopment has become a well-trodden narrative. https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/nov/03/community-save-public-land-peterborough-green-backyard
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Saving Peterborough’s Green Backyard: 'It's a point of stillness in a crazy world' | Cities | The Guardian
So despite the current social value that The Green Backyard provides, debates around the proposed development of this urban green space (and many other volunteer-run spaces) have been dominated by arguments for the financial value of the land – referring to the short-term cash injection that its sale would generate, rather than the long-term social benefit of the site. And when many users of the garden speak of their feelings of care and love for the space – and why it must be safeguarded – those qualitative responses are increasingly ignored by policies that prioritise private development over public green space.
The former derelict site transformed into a community garden. Photograph: Matthew Booth
Being closer to nature, finding peace and recovering from trauma; being accepted and forming mutually supportive social relationships; partaking in a community that would not otherwise survive in the city, or learning about food growing and environmental sustainability – these are all deeply valued, even if the state institutions and private interests fail to fully grasp it. (If we must calculate the economic equivalent, however, recent research shows that such qualities and experiences are exceptionally valuable: green spaces have a powerful impact on reducing health inequality and social disadvantage, saving financial costs on community centres and the NHS.) During my time in residence in Peterborough, we questioned the capitalist logic of The Green Backyard’s proposed development. We offered alternative evidence for the current social use and value of the land, in the form of a visual and audio archive of more than 100 cyanotypes and oral recordings, plus a large-scale installation in the garden. The process raised many questions about what this community – and many other volunteer-run projects – stands to lose if the land were to be given over to development. As I write, the decision as to whether or not The Green Backyard will be allowed to continue as a community garden is being made by Peterborough city council – which also has aspirations for the city to become the UK’s Environment Capital.
https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/nov/03/community-save-public-land-peterborough-green-backyard
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Saving Peterborough’s Green Backyard: 'It's a point of stillness in a crazy world' | Cities | The Guardian
Jessie Brennan ‘Cotton lavender’: cyanotype from Inside The Green Backyard (Opportunity Area), 2015 16
In the time I have known this place, there has been a marked shift in the relationship between it and the local authority, in how the space and its occupants are perceived. In December 2014 a “for sale” sign was erected in front of the site by its owner; yet by April 2016, after a period of intense collaboration and discussion with council members, they had submitted a business plan detailing the site’s financial viability. This signals a willingness to listen and adapt which gives fuel to the hope that local authorities are not completely impervious to local concerns, or blind to grassroots change. But this shift brings with it fresh challenges and new economic imperatives. The future of the site may be hopeful, but until a lease is signed it is still uncertain. The spaces of The Green Backyard, and instructions for how they are interacted with, cannot be found in a blueprint; nor are they inscribed in a private development proposal or business plan. People find what they need here through their active contribution to the land – which collectively belongs to them – and towards those who tend it. In a shared garden, time opens up for conversation and debate in the very act of slowing down. But today, considering the rapid reconfiguration of urban space from communal to private ownership, perhaps what is most radical about The Green Backyard is its politics of hospitality: the gentleness with which it hosts people whose conflicting views, contested voices and vulnerable lives (as, indeed, we all lead) are utterly welcomed.
Voices of The Green Backyard Renny Antonelli, co-founder I was one of the people who began the project seven years ago. It’s grown from a very little tent and a couple of volunteers doing a bit of digging, into a much bigger project which people come to see from far and wide.
https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/nov/03/community-save-public-land-peterborough-green-backyard
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Saving Peterborough’s Green Backyard: 'It's a point of stillness in a crazy world' | Cities | The Guardian
We give to people by allowing them to come here and share the space, giving them the time of day, and the opportunity to just relax and see the place. It’s the encouragement to grow things, to do things communally, which we’re sort of piloting, in a very small way – some steps into a new way of being, a new way of living. Rosemary Steel, volunteer I came here first of all about three years ago when I was told I couldn’t garden where I was in sheltered housing. You might as well have cut my hands off, and this – The Green Backyard – was a lifesaver. I met people who just took you as you were. We could talk about anything. Everyone, of course, has their challenges. So there were people who were having a tough time – as I was at that moment – and it was a touch of sanity and fellowship. Families come, children are free to be who they are and they can run around and see chickens and things in their natural environment. For me it’s a point of stillness in a crazy world, and a very important point in Peterborough.
‘What is necessary here?’ (2014), by Jessie Brennan
Katie Bliss, visitor One of the wonderful things about The Green Backyard for me, as an agroecologist, is to see the incredible diversity of crops that are grown here: how they’re all interspersed, integrated together; and all the benefits that come from those interactions. That’s also reflected in The Green Backyard as a community space: in the diversity of people who come here. I turned up here on my own, I don’t know a lot of people in Peterborough, but I always feel welcome here. For people to be able to come here and grow food is a simple thing, but it’s really powerful. And OK, these spaces are not going to feed entire cities, but that reconnection back with the plants that feed us, and the soil that feeds us, is really important. Kelly Mansfield, visitor The Green Backyard has become really special to me. I started coming here with my three-year-old son Kai, and a group of us come fairly regularly now, on Thursday afternoons after work. The children’s area is probably the place I’ve spent most time in. The trees are perfect for climbing. It’s so simple: old logs and tree swings with old tyres, but through that all the children are able to take safe risks and enjoy themselves without having to feel they’re restricted by rules and boundaries. https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/nov/03/community-save-public-land-peterborough-green-backyard
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Saving Peterborough’s Green Backyard: 'It's a point of stillness in a crazy world' | Cities | The Guardian
I always look forward to coming here, and never want to leave. I think the council totally overlooks how much it contributes to Peterborough and the community. If Peterborough is really meant to be heading for Environment Capital, why do they want to take something away from us that gives so much? Chris Erskine, volunteer I feel absolutely privileged to be in some way, shape or form, part of something that is offering the love of strangers, in a city where there are many strangers. And in a country where, increasingly so, the stranger is potentially seen as the enemy or a threat, or something that we need to guard ourselves against. The Green Backyard represents something completely opposite, offering a different understanding of that, and basically offering love.
‘ If This Were to Be Lost’ (2016), by Jessie Brennan
Fiona Elliot, visitor I happen to be disabled; I’m on a scooter and I’ve managed to get around all the paths and for me, it’s nice to come back here and think of the gardening that I used to be able to do. I think this place is accessible for everyone. It’s a place where, if you’re feeling a bit lonely, you can come and be with people. Rich Hill, trustee In the same way as the refugees are displaced from their homeland, I think there is another kind of displacement – there are other kinds of refugees in society and culture. The Green Backyard, in my time here, has acted as somewhere for those people to find a refuge. Newcomers to the city have found their way to The Green Backyard somehow; it’s a place where they can socialise, integrate, and where they can find their feet in what must be a really alien and foreign city. It’s given them a sense of community. Sophie Antonelli, co-founder I’d like to say that we knew what we were doing when we first opened the site, but as is often the case in voluntary groups, the creation of what would become The Green Backyard was motivated by the seizing of an opportunity. In this case, offered land together with a tacit sense of need to preserve years of learning created by my father on his allotments; to create a space for people to learn and change; and to challenge the momentum of the city, which in my lifetime had seemed stagnant and apathetic. I have come to realise that there is a great value to be found within ‘imperfect’ spaces through their ability to reflect our own humanity and fallibility. A working garden – warts, weeds and all – https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/nov/03/community-save-public-land-peterborough-green-backyard
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