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If there’s one thing London needs, it’s more housing. Unfortunately, if there’s another thing London needs it’s more green space – and two new developments in different parts of the city are threatening some much-loved local gardens.
First up, Dalston Eastern Curve Garden. Since 2010 this magical little place has been an oasis just off the hectic Kingsland High Street, run on a shoestring and popular with all sorts of people from the local community. But Hackney Council plans to redevelop the area, which could involve running a new pedestrian thoroughfare through what’s currently the garden’s entrance and café area. That could destroy its secluded atmosphere and its ability to make enough money to stay open.
The council is consulting on what to do with the land the garden sits on. They say the ‘long term aim is to have more permanent green space in the area’, but hundreds of people have already written in to defend the Curve Garden’s immediate future. This weekend there’ll be a drop-in event at the garden to inform people about the threat and what they can do to help. There will also be pizza. Find out more via the Facebook event: Speak up for the Dalston Curve Garden.
Down in Greenwich, more campaigners are fighting to save a grassroots green space. The Royal Hill Community Garden popped up on a disused police car park last year, and local volunteers and businesses have worked hard to turn it into a little green lung for the borough, but now Greenwich Council has applied for planning permission to build four homes there.
A planning meeting tonight could decide Royal Hill’s fate, and a petition to save it has had almost 1,000 signatures. Add yours here if you believe that solving London’s housing crisis shouldn’t mean sacrificing the quiet green spaces that make city life bearable.
‘A greener, wilder, healthier, better place to live’: meet the man who wants to make London a National Park City.