About Us

Visitor Info

Streatham Common Community Garden is located in the Rookery on Streatham Common.

You will find us through a black wooden gate at the bottom of the Rookery public garden, at the end of Streatham Common South.

The nearest train stations are: Streatham, Streatham Common and Norbury.

Bus routes: buses 109, 133, 250, 255 stop at the bottom of the Common – about 15 minutes walk from the garden.

The 249 from Streatham Station stops at The Rookery – about 5 minutes walk from the garden.

Opening hours

We are open on Wednesdays and Sundays from 11am to 3pm. Opening hours may vary during December and January.

You are welcome to come for a visit at any time during our opening hours.

Our Aims

The main aims of the project are to:

restore the site to its former glory including preservation of historic features
be a community resource for promoting food, gardening, sustainable living, good health and positive community interaction
protect wildlife on site and improve biodiversity
provide training in organic gardening and growing of fruit and vegetables
become a growing hub for Lambeth – providing advice, assistance and support to other growing groups
be a welcoming place where people from all walks of life can come to learn about, to work

History

Streatham Common Community Garden is a historic walled garden situated within the Rookery public garden. Formally a kitchen garden of the Rookery (the last manor house that stood at the top of the hill, built in 1786), the site of garden was also used a Council nursery, supplying plants for parks and green spaces across Lambeth, before falling in to a state of neglect.

The garden was set up following a public meeting by the Friends of Streatham Common and Transition Streatham in October 2010, to discuss the possibility of establishing a community garden on the Common. This took place at a time when there was growing interest in local growing schemes and particularly community gardening in the area. As a result of the public meeting, a Steering Group was formed to take the proposal forward. This later became a Committee that negotiated a seven year tenancy agreement with the Council to use part of the old plant nursery as a community gardening and food growing scheme.

We got the keys in June 2011 and, since we started work on site in September 2011, approximately 50% of the old nursery has been managed and maintained by the project, bringing it back into productive use as a viable growing space continuing a history of gardening on the site going back at least 230 years. Already hundreds of hours of volunteer time have been contributed to restore this very special garden back to its former glory.

Since opening to the public we have secured funding from local and national grant-giving bodies including the Mayor’s Outer London Fund via Streatham Action for the creation of a Heritage Fruit Garden, Awards for All and the Western Riverside Project for improvements to the pathways, and the Heritage Lottery Fund for a series of workshops inspired by the history of the site. In 2013, we became a Registered Charity and also launched a membership scheme. In 2016 we secured funding from the National Lottery through the Big Lottery Fund. In 2018 we secured funding from the London Community Foundation’s Lambeth Community Fund to run our Learner Plot programme. At the Blooming Lambeth awards in 2018 we were awarded winner of the Best Community Garden in a Park, jointly with Brockwell Greenhouses. In 2020 we are funded by the Lambeth Wellbeing Fund, from the London Community Foundation to run our Learner Plot project.

Annual Reports

As a registered charity we produce an annual report and accounts on our activities.

Our Policies

You can access policies which describe how we manage the garden, as well as information for users of the garden. They help us ensure the garden is a safe and welcoming place for everyone.