community/cultural, garden, walk/tour
n/a
Walworth Garden, 206 Manor Place, SE17 3BN
Based on the Walworth Neighbourhood Food Model, this walking tour includes visits to selected food and gardening initiatives in Walworth, introducing participants to existing challenges and opportunities in the local food system.
Elephant & Castle, Kennington
Elephant & Castle
21, 53, 168, 172, 363, 415, 453, 63
Walking approximately 1 mile, with 5 stops.
The later stages of the walk will be on Walworth Rd where the traffic and the pavements can be busy.
The tour begins at Walworth Garden, established as a community garden in 1987. The garden is now an established local charity dedicated to knowledge and nurture, and an award winning, organic community garden that's open to all, 7 days a week. Walworth Garden offers workshops for residents and City and Guilds Level 2 Work Based Horticulture training, as well as environmental landscaping services.
What role does Walworth Garden play in training and inspiring the next generation of urban food growers?
When the Alberta Estate was built in the late 1950s, fruit and nut trees formed a significant part of the planting in communal garden areas. In 2017 the Alberta TRA formed a group with the aim of caring for the remaining fruit trees, and renewing planting that has been lost.
The ambition was to use fruit trees as a focus for community events, fostering greater community involvement and custodianship of communal spaces, creating stronger connections within the community, and improving the local environment.
In the years since the group have planted 26 trees, and over 100 bushes and fruiting hedge plants, across 8 different communal garden areas, as well as wildflower areas, herbs, bee friendly pollinators, and many unusual edibles from a pomegranate tree to a Szechuan pepper.
We'll be asking - how can small scale community growing projects such as this hope to influence the wider food system?
Fareshares was set up in 1988 by the local community to improve access to good food, based on the belief that decent food is a basic necessity for health, regardless of means. It's fresh food is supplied by the Better Food Shed, a non-profit wholesaler that provides organic vegetables from local farms. This food cooperative is volunteer-run and has continued to evolve into a dynamic space that functions based on trust and transparency. What can we learn from this model of food distribution?
The large scale development at the Elephant & Castle, and the demolition of the Heygate Estate have already profoundly impacted communities in Walworth. What will happen to the Walworth Rd, with its large number of independent shops, once the new shopping centre at Elephant opens? What is the future for East St Market? Can an emerging new development on the Walworth Rd be a site of community-led innovation, putting residents at the centre of the local food system?
