From boarded up library to gorgeous community garden: this space in London was transformed by a Chelsea gold-winning designer

A new community garden designed by Sarah Price around an old library turned arts centre in southeast London is a treasured space for local residents and garden lovers alike. Words: Jodie Jones, Photographs: Richard Bloom

Published: Tuesday, 05 November 2024 at 07:10 AM

It is no surprise to learn that the garden at The Exchange, with its painterly combinations of Elaeagnus ‘Quicksilver’, Rosa x odorata ‘Mutabilis’ and Benton irises, set off by mellow, handmade brick pavers and stylishly rusted corrugated fences, was designed by plant whisperer Sarah Price.

In Brief

What Community garden. Where London. Size 700 square metres.
Soil Enriched clay, with a 20cm layer of recycled sand in the front garden.
Climate Temperate. Hardiness zone USDA 7.

What is almost impossible to believe is that this exceptional exercise in high horticulture is a freely accessible community garden in the southeast London suburb of Erith. And then the number 99 bus thunders past, and two worlds collide.

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In 2016, all you would have seen from that bus window was a boarded-up library surrounded by brambles and rubbish. But then local residents Peter Nutley and Sarah Batten asked the council if they had any plans to regenerate the site. “Our timing was perfect,” says Peter. “The council was looking for a local organisation to take over the space, and we had always daydreamed about turning it into a community arts space.”

Getting the levels right was an essential part of making a place that welcomed people in and invited them to explore.

Having previously worked for the Churches Conservation Trust, Sarah had professional experience of comparable regeneration projects, while Peter had an arts background and six years as head technician at the Garden Museum under his belt. Together, they had the perfect combination of skills to turn their vision into reality, and the council snapped up their proposal.

At the shadier end of the East Garden, around an existing sycamore, a tapestry of varying textures and forms presents visitors with a masterclass in planting design, with foxgloves, cardoons, Sesleria autumnalis and Angelica archangelica standing out beautifully against the reclaimed rusted steel fence. © Richard Bloom

“It still wasn’t easy,” says Peter. “With limited funding, we had to phase the work while applying for more grants, but we always knew we wanted to create a destination garden that would bring new people into the area, as well as enhance the lives of those who were already here.” They also knew which designer they wanted for the job. “I’d worked with Sarah at the Garden Museum and loved her aesthetic, but I was still surprised when she replied to my email,” says Peter.

On her first visit, Sarah was struck not just by the site’s design potential but by the possibility
of creating something that would make a real difference to the lives of local people. “Peter talked about involving the community in the actual making of the garden, which fed into a lot of things I am interested in,” she says.

You’re as likely to come across a community art group sketching the plants as you are a gaggle of garden-design aficionados.

Sarah was soon sketching out a draft plan that was very close to the garden that exists today. “I immediately knew the atmosphere I wanted to create, with site-appropriate patinated materials to show off the plants, but first there were lots of technical issues to deal with,” she says.

One of those issues was the limited budget, which required a phased approach and a bit of lateral thinking in order to turn Sarah’s ideas into reality. “We had to prioritise getting the levels right, which included huge excavations next to the building to open up what is now the Fern Yard, and putting in the bespoke Corten-steel steps that link this area with the upper level at the back of the building. It was an expensive but essential part of making a place that welcomed people in and invited them to explore.”

Garden with steps — At the foot of the Corten- steel steps in the Fern Yard, ferns, including Dryopteris erythrosora and Polystichum setiferum ‘Herrenhausen’ link together a mix of planting, including Pinus halepensis, Acanthus mollis ‘Rue Ledan’ and low mounds of yew. © Richard Bloom

The result was a series of gardens wrapping the entire building, linked by paths made from
a mixture of crushed aggregate (repurposed from the building renovation) and bricks handmade in community workshops led by Local Works Studio, which also collaborated on Sarah’s 2023 Chelsea garden. “I based the proportions of the bricks on the parquet flooring inside the building, and the clay was excavated from nearby roadworks, which the contractor gave us for nothing,” says Sarah. “We worked really hard to ensure as many elements as possible were reclaimed or repurposed.”

But most of the time now, I feel that people are simply drawn by the beauty of the garden.

Those recycled elements included many of the plants, which were rehomed from a pop-up garden that Sarah had created for luxury brand Hermès. “The timing was just extremely lucky and, although that temporary garden looked very different, the plants translated really well into their new setting.” She also used her connections with online nursery Crocus to acquire a number of the plants it had supplied for her last Chelsea garden.

In all, by autumn 2021, Sarah had a palette of several thousand plants to get into the ground, aided by an army of volunteers ranging in age from toddlers to octogenarians. “We did it all in two mad days. Everyone was enthusiastic, but not everyone had the experience to work in the way we normally would on a job,” she says, with masterful understatement.

Large building and garden — Exposed and often windswept, the free-draining Front Garden is filled in summer with a swathe of limey Euphorbia seguieriana subsp. niciciana and giant fennel, interspersed with Catananche caerulea, Eschscholzia californica ‘Ivory Castle’ and the sword-like foliage of Eryngium yuccifolium. © Richard Bloom

Sarah eschews formal planting plans in favour of an intuitive approach that layers plants into a rich tapestry, and as she carefully set out pots in the prepared areas, she could only hope that the subtle relationships within each group would survive the planting process.

The volunteers rose magnificently to the challenge, helping to nurse the newly planted garden through the apocalyptic heatwave of summer 2022 and the Arctic winter that closely followed it. When head gardener Colin Stewart started in January 2023, he was astonished by what had been achieved. “The planting was incredibly generous. Sarah designs in time as well as space, so there was already a real depth and fluidity, which we have continued to develop.”

Given Sarah’s ‘undone’ aesthetic, the garden requires constant subtle tweaking to keep the picture in balance. A case in point is the narrow strip between the front of the library and the street, where Euphorbia seguieriana subsp. niciciana zings between clumps of Iris ‘Benton Susan’, Gladiolus communis subsp. byzantinus and Hesperaloe parviflora, with an airy understorey of self-seeding Eschscholzia californica ‘Ivory Castle’, culinary dill, Stipa tenuissima and Centranthus ruber ‘Albus’ that would overwhelm their more esoteric companions given half a chance.

Colin instinctively understands the challenge and then raises the stakes, introducing a splash of orange horned poppies here, a flutter of shell-pink Beth’s poppies there. He has pruned the Pinus halepensis to enhance their edgy contortions and filled the greenhouse (a wonderful creation shaped like a library bus) with the zingiest pelargoniums he could lay his hands on.

Double-decker bus passing a garden and building — Striking silver Ozothamnus rosmarinifolius ‘Silver Jubilee’ and Feijoa sellowiana, alongside airily pruned Pinus halepensis drift up out of a mix of self-seeded Centranthus ruber ‘Albus’, soft-yellow Phlomis russeliana, Cistus x argenteus ‘Silver Pink’ and long-flowering Anisodontea ‘El Rayo’. © Richard Bloom

Every Friday morning, the volunteers still turn out in force to help him. For the rest of the week, you’re as likely to come across a community art group sketching the plants as you are a gaggle of garden-design aficionados on a pilgrimage, or a posse of toddlers taking their first wobbly steps on the handmade brick paths. “Fifteen years after the library closed, I still get the odd person asking me if they can do their council tax here,” says Colin. “But most of the time now, I feel that people are simply drawn
by the beauty of the garden.”

Man sat in garden — Head gardener Colin Stewart is moving on from The Exchange, but his artistic eye and skilled hand have been essential to the ongoing success of the garden. © Richard Bloom

Colin’s tips for running a community garden

Create an atmosphere that welcomes everyone, whatever their age, ability or interests. You need spaces where people can have a quiet time among the greenery, meet friends for a drink, or nip out from a ceramics class to forage seedheads to press into wet clay.
Have dynamism in the planting. A garden that keeps changing keeps people coming back. Most people don’t come across these sorts of clever, multi-layered seasonal
combinations, and they do really capture everyone’s attention.
Be open to the different reasons why people want to be in the garden. Some may use their involvement for their CV, or will be looking for ideas or advice for their own gardens. Others will just value having somewhere to go – a fixed point in a week that may otherwise lack structure.
Incorporate a flexible space where people can take ownership. At The Exchange there is a cutting patch for volunteers to grow what they like.
Set up systems that promote healthy, eco-friendly practices.
A garden is a great educational tool and can result in fun projects, such as the dead hedge built into the boundary fence here to hide an unattractive view and create a wildlife habitat.
Have somewhere to plug in a kettle and store a biscuit tin. Community gardens are fuelled by tea breaks.

Useful information:
Address The Exchange, The Old Library, Walnut Tree Road, Erith, London DA8 1RA. Tel 01322 341144. Web theexchangeerith.com
Open Wednesdays and Fridays, 10.30am-5pm; Thursday 10.30am-9pm. Open some Saturdays in summer and autumn. See website for details.