Cranbrook Community Food Garden © Candy Blackham
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A walk around Tower Hamlets By OGSW Event Programme Manager Anna White This walk links OGSW gardens open on Saturday or Sunday and other green spaces open all the time. Please check garden opening times before starting your walk. This walk is good for the city curious and for foodies. Expect real urban London – graffiti, quiet back streets and run-down buildings, peppered with feats of modern design and pockets of city creativity. From Aldgate tube, turn right and stroll to Sir John Cass’s Foundation Primary School (page 21). Spot the old police telephone box and drinking fountain, and pause at the ‘bronze tent’ café on the green. Leaving Sir John Cass’s, explore Saint James Passage’s small but beautifully kept garden in the shadow of the Gherkin. Leave via the passageway in the giant glass Illy building, then cross at the pedestrian lights onto Creechurch Lane. Cross over Houndsditch straight on to Stoney Lane, turn right at the end and then turn immediately left on to Gravel Lane. Look out for the spectacular brass instrument shop. At the end of Gravel Lane turn left and immediately right on to New Coulston Street.
TOWER HAMLETS
Cross over the A11 into Altab Ali Park – note the information board about Sir John Cass. Continue diagonally across the park and out onto Adler Street. Continue on to Mulberry Street, then at the end turn left on to Plumbers Row and follow the road as it curves to the right around Tesco Metro, onto Fieldgate Street. Pass the London Muslim Centre and East London Mosque. Cross the main road onto Stepney Way, and as you arrive at Turner Street stop and look around you: notice the 1930s apartment building, the modern skyscrapers in the background and the dilapidated Victorian buildings, and don’t miss the giant brown hedgehog building! Cross Turner Street and at the Royal Museum Hospital you will find Core Landscapes Community Plant Nursery and Garden (page 58). To finish your walk, the closest tube is Whitechapel.
At the end of the street, go through the black gates immediately in front of you into a housing estate. Go round to the left of the buildings and cut through onto Old Castle Street. Turn left towards Wentworth Street, then head right and continue over the main road and past the Culpepper Pub. Shortly afterwards, on the right, you will see Providence Row Rooftop Garden (page 59). Leaving Providence Row, turn right towards Brick Lane. Allow time to explore this area – more will be open the later in the day you go. Next, turn right on to Osborn Street – here you are spoilt for choice for food and refreshments.
Providence Row Rooftop Garden © Candy Blackham
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Open: Sunday 10.30am-4pm Entrance: Hardinge Street Access: Some narrow paths; main entrance and roadway easily accessible Nearest station: Shadwell Bus: 100 Website: www.cablestreetcommunitygardens.co.uk WC
TH3. Core Landscapes Community Plant Nursery and Garden E1 2JL Map 8
Approach Gardens © Candy Blackham
TH1. Approach Gardens E2 9LU Map 3
Award-winning Approach Gardens is a thriving community food garden which brings together local and diverse groups. A resident-led committee raised funds to rescue the site and the garden now boasts 40 raised beds which are cherished by local families, schoolchildren and a day care centre. There is a small, shared fruit orchard and a wildlife area and pond (with frogs and toads), a native hedgerow, bug hotel, wildflower meadow and ivy for the bees. The garden won Silver in the 2018 London in Bloom Awards (‘Thriving garden’ category) and the Best Community Garden and Best Wildlife (‘Group’ category) in the Tower Hamlets in Bloom Awards 2018, before being crowned the Overall Group Winner. Open: Sunday 12-4pm Entrance: Russia Lane Nearest stations: Bethnal Green underground, Cambridge Heath overground Buses: 8, D6, 309, D3, 106, 254 Website: www.approachgardens.co.uk
Core Landscapes transforms barren empty sites into green community havens which improve people’s wellbeing through horticulture. The Whitechapel site in the heart of the East End is the project’s third site change in the last decade. With each move, the project strengthens and improves. An empty piece of land now has a thriving garden, with an orchard, herbaceous borders, pond, plant nursery, medicinal plants and food growing area featuring moveable containers. There is also a bus, fish to see and plants to buy. The garden was crowned the Overall Winner of the ‘Our Community Award’ in the 2018 London in Bloom Awards. Open: Saturday 10am-5pm Entrance: Turner Street end of Stepney Way opposite back entrance of the Royal London Hospital, next to hospital museum Access: Mainly wheelchair and pushchair accessible with some uneven ground Nearest stations: Whitechapel, Shadwell, Bethnal Green (all 15-minutes walk) Buses: 25, 106, 205, 253 (Whitechapel Road), 15, 115, D3 (Commercial Road) Website: www.corearts.co.uk/core-landscapes WC
TH4. Cranbrook Community Food Garden E2 0RD Map 3
This award-winning community food garden is celebrating its 10th birthday in 2019. Cranbrook Estate residents and those from the surrounding area designed and built the garden in 2009. It nestles proudly within the iconic modernist Cranbrook Estate, designed by Skinner, Bailey and Lubetkin. Completed in the 1960s, it is home to Elizabeth Frink’s sculpture The Blind Beggar and his Dog. The garden, which holds regular community workshops, has 21 raised beds, a shed, greenhouse, composting facilities, a patio area with seating and a living roof. Awards for the garden have included an Outstanding rating in London in Bloom in 2016, 2017 and 2018. Open: Saturday 10am-3pm, Sunday 10am-3pm Entrance: The Avenue, Cranbrook Estate Roman Road – opposite Usk Street Access: Wheelchair access to over three-quarters of the garden, although ground is uneven Nearest station: Bethnal Green Buses: 8, D6 WC
St Peter’s Bethnal Green Church and Vicarage Gardens © Candy Blackham
TH6. St Peter’s Bethnal Green Church and Vicarage Gardens E2 7AE Map 3
Cranbrook Community Food Garden © Candy Blackham
TH5. Providence Row Rooftop Garden E1 7SA Map 8
Providence Row is a charity supporting homeless and vulnerable people in East London and providing accredited training in gardening. In the secret rooftop garden, more than 100 edible plants are grown, ensuring a constant supply of ingredients for the kitchen which creates up to 30 breakfasts and lunches every day. Raised beds of perennials provide year-round colour while mobile planters provide greenery. A large golden honey locust tree spans native woodland planting in the courtyard garden. The result is a flexible, therapeutic and attractive environment for the services and activities offered throughout the week by the charity. Open: Saturday 12-4pm Entrance: 82 Wentworth Street Access: Courtyard garden is fully accessible; access to roof garden includes steps Nearest stations: Aldgate East, Aldgate Bus: 67 Website: www.providencerow.org.uk WC
TH2. Cable Street Community Gardens E1 0EL Map 8
This organic garden, created in the 1970s on reclaimed derelict land, is a well-established oasis of tranquility in the heart of an historic inner-city area. Cable Street Community Gardens has grown into a very successful community project, with members and their families looking after more than 50 plots. The garden is a haven for wildlife with several small ponds and a traditional British hedgerow. It also has raised planters for elderly gardeners and those with limited mobility and serves as an important community focal point.
Providence Row Rooftop Garden © Candy Blackham Core Landscapes Community Plant Nursery and Garden © Candy Blackham
Over time, the church garden at St Peter’s Bethnal Green has been a parade ground, schoolyard and cholera pit. Now, it is a vibrant community garden bounded by 200-year-old London plane trees. The church building itself is surrounded by allotments and ornamental flowerbeds and these are tended by volunteer gardeners. The private garden at the Vicarage will once again open its ‘secret garden door’ leading visitors into a peaceful haven and meeting place which has been brought back into use over the last seven years. Open: Saturday 2-5pm, Sunday 2-5pm Entrance: South side garden entrance from St Peter’s Close, then Vicarage garden from the church garden Access: Church building is now wheelchair-accessible from the front and main church garden is accessible with some narrow and uneven paths; the crypt is not accessible, nor is half the Vicarage garden, though it is all visible Nearest stations: Bethnal Green, Hoxton, Shoreditch High Street Buses: 8, 26, 48, 55, 388 Website: www.stpetersbethnalgreen.org WC
TH7. Winterton House Organic Garden E1 2QR Map 8
This prizewinning garden has been transformed from a rubbish dump into a horticultural oasis for the residents of Winterton House and the neighbouring community, by local retired gentlemen Melvyn and Ken. Over several years they have created a garden worthy of the prestigious RHS Gold Award, complete with a pergola, gravel planting, climbers and roses, a mixed herbaceous border and a pond. A small allotment area enables residents to grow fruit and vegetables too. Open: Sunday 10am-4pm Entrance: Deancross Streeet, just off the Commercial Road Access: Allotment area has a step entrance Nearest stations: Shadwell, Whitechapel Buses: 15, 100, 115, 135, 339, D9