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.
We are a charity and we are holding our AGM 11th January 2016, 7pm for 7.15 in the Railway. All welcome but only members may vote – you can join here
You can download our Annual Report for October 2014 – October 2015.
Opening hours
We are open every Sunday at the following times:
Winter opening hours (beginning of November to end of February) 11am-3pm (not every weekend December/ January, details here
Summer opening hours (beginning of March to end of October) 12-4pm
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 StreathamCommon 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.
Annual Reports
As a registered charity we produce an annual report and accounts on our activities.
