If you walk out of Camden, towards Holloway, the streets get quieter, less crowded, and progressively less colourful. On each side of Camden Road there are streets that lead towards residential areas that look nothing like the famously lively corners of Camden Town. There the residents too, look nothing like the punks and goths that make the area celebrated worldwide.
In Rochester Square a long string of bright flowers on an apparently old gate catch your attention. Behind the bars there is what looks at first sight, like an area under construction; there’s a giant painting of a fox on one of the walls of a building, a sign saying, “Rochester Square,” and various gardening and construction tools all over the place. Some days you can hear music playing.
This was once a nursery to grow plants for movies and theatre. The site was left derelict for ten years, until about two years ago when a group of volunteers moved in. They decided to turn the area into an open garden and a community centre where people can come and relax, or find organic food that the big supermarkets lack. Raised beds, each one growing a different kind of vegetables, such as spinach and potatoes, are lined up around three greenhouses.
The community has open days on Sundays, with musicians coming play, and a barbecue organised for next Tuesday.
“We increased the number of raised beds that were already here due to the ground being covered in concrete,” says Ned Addison, who has worked on the project for about a year. “We try to be as sustainable as we can,” he adds, as he gestures towards a pile of bicycles in a corner, which they used to carry the beds in. “Some of them will be turned in bicycle-powered machinery.”
“One of the ideas is that it’s a place of empowerment, in my own views, to teach people how to grow their own food and create their own energy.”
They were also given a large tent to put massage tables in and use as a “healing space.” “Everything here has been achieved with no money. It’s totally down to individuals being empowered and being inspired.”
The three greenhouses have just recently been cleared of rubbish “It was up to our knees,” by the volunteers and now hosts various rooms where everyone who comes in can freely relax, play music, cook, or paint. There is also a corner with a bookcase with books, on multiple subjects, to take for free. “We hope to hold lectures and workshops and, as I said, inspire people.”
“The building was first occupied by a group of seven people as a place to live, and then another group came and were inspired to actually start to create the gardens as they are,” Ned explains. “We are actually squatters. But we’re protected, at the moment. The owner of the building sadly passed away, and the government needs to go through his affairs before the property can be sold.”
Even though the gardens could be only temporary, Ned says that it doesn’t matter. “People say, ‘You’re a fool, it’s going to be taken away from you,’ but if people have been inspired, even if everything’s taken away, those people can do some great work. Even if the seed doesn’t grow into a tree that bears fruit, the new trees have more chances of growing into a fruit because they now exist, whereas before they wouldn’t have.”
Hi my name is Carlos I am an agronomist graduated former teacher Holland Park nursery supervisor and actually working for Defra and i am glad to say that I am the main responsable for the gardens during the last 3 years of okupacion of the square. I was living there in a little shed out of the main building and I can guarantee that there was more noise in the street than inside. As kind of public space a lot of people has passed for the Palace ans have lived there for some amount of time and no all of them have been good for the place and have been invited to leave for the sake of the community and the project that some of us starting the community tried to achieve. Therefore I think there has been diferent times depending on the people Living there but I managed to keep the gardening and allotments project as a focus for the community
Im afraid this is NOT a good representation of the garden centre. im afraid its A place full of people with their own self interest, drug taking, and making a lot of noise. As a neighbour (currently living around the square) who has visited the site feel that the truth needs to be told. A lot of violence and a lot of noise. Please let the courts rule to get them out. FROM A PERSON LIVING ON THE SQUARE. we need a garden centre run in a proper fashion with a handful of peaceful people.