Besson Street Gardens. A perfect piece of Heaven in the center of London. I speak to Dan who set up and runs the maintenance of the Gardens with the help of volunteers.

Kender Street, in the historic manor of Hatcham, was first laid out in the 1820s and houses from this time do survive. Besson Street, running off it, was built up by the 1860s. Much of the housing in these close-knit streets was swept away in the early 1970s when the Kender Estate was built by the Greater London Council. At the same time the New Cross Gate one-way system was created, which saw both Kender Street and Besson Street converted into one-way main roads.

The idea of a community garden on the site was originally conceived by local people when a youth club, which had been using a prefabricated building on the site, moved to more suitable premises. The suggestion was, after some discussion, supported by the Council, which had previously intended to build houses on the land. The Nature Conservation Section became involved in the design, and planting began in the summer of 1990.

The garden consists of two main parts. Half of the site is a "traditional" community nature area, with a meadow, a pond and a mixed native hedge along the fence. The pond supports large numbers of frogs and is popular with local schools for pond dipping. The meadow is unusual in that substantial numbers of the tall, purple spikes of Argentinian vervain, an escapee from the other side of the garden, appear in some years. #newcross #bessonstreet #london #community #garden