MARKFIELD PARK'S NEW, WILD URBAN COMMUNITY GARDEN

Aim

Innovative, sustainable design meets community stewardship in this green space project to boost health & wellbeing in Tottenham North London

***ALL PLEDGES UP TO £250 WILL BE DOUBLED BY THE AVIVA COMMUNITY FUND! They support community initiatives focused on nature recovery in the UK.***

OUR VISION

The award-winning landscape designers Wild City Studio are working in collaboration with Project Giving Back, Centre for Mental Health, Haringey Council and Friends of Markfield Park to create an innovatively designed community garden and food forest at Markfield Park in Tottenham, North London. We are offering a unique opportunity to sponsor the installation of this exciting community-led partnership with a focus on mental and physical well-being at it's beating heart.

Parks and urban green spaces have been the lifeblood of our cities, towns, and villages for centuries, providing sanctuary from urban life and spaces for communities to come together.  For many, urban green spaces are the main connection to our natural world, but they also provide an important community identity. The planned work by Wild City Studio celebrates the Parks’ unique culture and heritage through the installation of immersive community buildings, food forests, a mushroom den and permaculture grow beds all working in harmony within a backdrop of the historic framework of the existing Victorian filter bed system. The final garden will be a seamless meeting of old and new, a simultaneous celebration of our past and our future.

This is intended as the first project of its kind, using affordable techniques to provide authentic connections to nature in the areas that need it most. Our vision is to create a blueprint that can be used across the UK to enable diverse communities to steward and be proud of their local green spaces. Centre for Mental Health with support from Natural England will also be providing an impact report of the communities mental health. Along with ecological surveys we are excited to gather crucial evidence to prove the value these spaces can bring to local areas. 

The community garden will not only be used by the local people but also be a hub for charities, events and a training ground to celebrate innovative techniques in the future of urban stewardship.

THE MUSHROOM DEN

Food forestry principles surrounding steel bridges that lead to the urban mushroom farm. This area will be a practical and engaging hub  celebrating a wide variety of wild and immersive food growing for the community to share.

THE REFLECTION POOL

This area centers around a steel reflection pool with wild edges. A selection of gabion benches give locals the opportunity to sit, contemplate and socialise.

THE COMMUNITY ALLOTMENT 

This area will focus on a plethora of annual and perennial edibles engaging the local community with hands on organic food growing to educate, share and attract new audiences. 'The Pig Shed' is our community hub, inspired by the sites history of farming pigs during the second world war. This will be a covered area for the gardeners and will also include a rain water harvesting system connected to steel troughs to help water the allotments.

THE COMMUNITY ORCHARD

On the east side across from the cafe we have the opportunity to cultivate an orchard through hugelkultur principles by recycling the green waste created during the installation. Contouring the space provides areas to grow a range of fruit trees and bushes chosen by a diverse community including areas to sit, escape and relax. The orchard will celebrate seasonal harvests, bringing together the local community throughout the year.

ABOUT THE PARK

Markfield Park has many unique elements that set it apart from other parks; a Victorian Beam engine and museum powered by steam, a canal boat mooring backing onto the River Lee, a skate park and an amphitheater, open green spaces for sport activities and a thriving cafe at it's heart.

As one of the first sewage works in Britain the Beam Engine has a rich cultural heritage. Although much loved by the local community the surrounding site and remaining concrete ruins have become underutilized and become a hotbed for antisocial behavior. This unique framework of concrete provides an inspiring industrial backdrop full of character and a home for this ground breaking project. 

The community garden will see the site rejuvenated, a celebration of nature and community offering a fresh perspective and a new lease of life.

THE STORY SO FAR...

With our charity partners Centre For Mental Health and support from Project Giving Back we were able to create a show garden at Chelsea Flower Show 2023 that celebrated innovative horticulture and it's place in the future of urban community spaces. We highlighted the vital connection between authentic nature experiences and our mental health and how through affordable techniques we can create real change in often overlooked and underprivileged areas.

Our show garden took direct inspiration from Markfield Park and it was always our plan for it to find it's permanent home within the park. Project Giving Back are passionate about ensuring their show gardens have a long lasting legacy and we have received initial funding to install the key elements of the show garden into the space. However, we see the huge potential for this project and the impact it will have over a much larger area and therefore are reaching out for further support in creating something truly special.

WHY YOUR SUPPORT IS SO IMPORTANT

Through pledging to this project you will support a local community-led initiative that promises to inject new life into the area and provide much-needed space for boosting health and wellbeing through collaborations with specialist mental health organisations. Resilience and sustainability are at the core of this project and the main aims are:
- Building a stronger community through local partnerships and stewardships
- Creating innovative design that stands the test of time and reduces the need for maintenance
- Boosting mental health through an immersive natural space and events aimed at improving mental health across a number of different target groups, including suicide prevention and cancer recovery patients
- Using recycled substrates and ‘waste’ products from local waste sites e.g. crushed concrete
- Educating the community in sustainable food and plant growing practices and exploring unusual and under-utilised edible plants
- Establishing initiatives for engaging learning in sustainable green spaces, developing the next generation of gardeners that need to learn the skills to become resilient in the face of climate change
- Creating spaces that are inclusive of both people and wildlife in equal measure

Your support would make a significant difference to our ability to deliver this project and help secure the future of this vibrant community initiative which is accessible to all. 

Thank you for considering this project and being a part of making this important project possible!!

This project successfully funded on 29th December 2023