Mayor puts finishing touches to one of his 100 pocket parks in Hackney

The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, joined local volunteers to apply the finishing touches to one of his 100 ‘pocket parks’ today, 7th August, at a former car breaker’s yard in Hackney.

The new park is part of the Mayor’s £2m programme to enable local communities and volunteers to rejuvenate and transform small patches of uncultivated and overlooked land into lush green spaces for everyone to use and enjoy.

The National Trust’s Breaker’s Yard has received £40,000 from the Mayor and has been renovated with the help of the National Trust and hundreds of local volunteers after being designed by landscaper Daniel Lobb.

The former scrapheap site, next to the National Trust’s Tudor manor Sutton House, had been left unused and decaying for over a decade before its reincarnation as a flower filled park including an edible garden, art installations and tyre planters which nod to the site’s recent history.

The Breaker’s Yard will be among the first 20 ‘pocket parks’ to be completed and is expected to start welcoming families, local schools, and hosting community events next week.

By April 2015, the Mayor will have delivered 100 brand new ‘pocket parks’ across the capital.

The Mayor’s ‘pocket parks’, with more trees, plants, vegetable gardens and wildlife, are helping to make London an even greener city and a more pleasant place to live and work, with improved air quality and reduced flood risk.

They form part of a £6m commitment from the Mayor to increase green spaces and tree cover in London.

The Mayor is also helping to plant thousands of new trees a year, and investing in a wide range of programmes, in collaboration with local boroughs, developers and communities, to conserve green spaces, restore London’s waterways, and to better link green spaces with new paths and cycle ways across the capital.

The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, said: “Breaking the mould of traditional parks and gardens, this former car breaker’s yard demonstrates how, with a little vision and creativity, a ‘pocket park’ can be created in some of the most unusual and challenging spaces. Here, and in all our ‘pocket parks’, committed local volunteers have rolled up their sleeves to create something truly unique for the whole community to enjoy. Whether here in Hackney, or at the other 99 sites across the capital, these small urban oases are helping to brighten up our city and make it an even better place to live, work and invest.”

A further 99 ‘pocket parks’ are springing up across the capital. Angel Community Garden in Edmonton was a disused industrial space and is now being transformed into a community garden for growing food, playing and working with the help of £45,000 from the Mayor.

In Hammersmith, £40,000 is helping to develop Cathnor Park into a local flood defence with improved irrigation, while improving the space for local residents.

A ‘green gym’ is being created on Bromley College Green with over £17,000 from City Hall.

And in Streatham, the Mayor has helped create The Mitcham Lane Baptist Church’s garden of discover with over £9,300 from the Mayor.

Christopher Cleeve, National Trust Project Manager, said: “With the generous backing of the Mayor of London’s Pocket Park fund the National Trust and thousands of local people have been able to create a new and playful outdoor space in the heart of east London where once there was dereliction.”

Carlo Laurenzi OBE, Chief Executive of London Wildlife Trust, said, “We are grateful for the Mayor’s support, which is enabling us to develop a number of pocket parks across London. Our planting of wild flowers and fruit trees, together with new paths and benches, can transform these sites into beautiful places where Londoners can relax and enjoy the benefits of nature, and wildlife, in the heart of the city.”