lifeisland - Manor Garden Olympic Allotments

In his thoroughly entertaining book “One Man And His Dig” (’adventures of an allotment novice’), Valentine Low includes a chapter on Allotments Under Threat. He highlights the relentless pressure on allotment sites all over the country and describes the experiences at East Acton, Eastleigh and Redbridge as well as Manor Gardens. He came along to the last Open Day to give a reading:

When the allotment-holders at Manor Gardens in the East End faced the threat of losing their plots, they were pitted against an opponent even more formidable and intransigent than Colin White and the Hogarth Club (who wanted to build a private health club on 100-year old allotments in East Acton). They were up against the London Development Agency, a body armed with statutory powers and rather more highly paid lawyers than Colin White could ever dream of. Their aims were also rather more significant than just building a health club: as the Mayor of London’s agency for economic growth, they were charged with the task of acquiring the land for the 2012 Olympics - and the allotments were in their way. Continue Reading »

The award-winning Kitchen Sisters, Davia Nelson & Nikki Silva, came to visit us while making the London’s Gardens: Allotments for the People feature (follow link to listen) for their popular “Hidden Kitchens” slot on National Public Radio’s “Morning Edition”. We were delighted to be featured in this very well-produced story which went out on 27th June 2008. NPR produces programs for an audience of 26 million across the States.
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Following the recommendations of the consultants’ report, work has been going on this week to attempt to ease the waterlogging problems on 9 of the worst affected plots at the Marsh Lane allotment site.
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If you live within reach of the Olympic park and have ever thought about getting an allotment plot, you can help our campaign by registering your interest through our survey.

We believe that substantial areas of allotments will be the best possible use of the land that will be available in the Olympic Legacy Park post-2012, and we want to do everything possible to make this happen.

Plentiful allotments will not only help address issues of local food production and rising food prices, but are highly beneficial for people’s health and well being, are a major contribution to biodiversity, enliven the landscape and are a vital social resource and community asset.

We know that there can be waiting lists of up to 5 years for a plot on existing sites in some of the Olympic Boroughs, but to be able to objectively demonstrate the scale of interest in and demand for allotments we have commissioned our own survey, with the responses being processed by a professional survey company.

20,000 leaflets have been distributed with local newspapers, but you can print it out and send it with your contact details to Manor Garden Allotments c/o Shelton Associates, Freepost SF186, SHEFFIELD S17 3LE.

SURVEY LEAFLET

Jan Stradtmann’s photographs of eerily lit sheds at the Manor Gardens site were taken in the last months of public access to the site. 6 months later, all trace had been erased, the soil itself being removed in the symbolic cleansing of the area of every sign of history or previous human activity.

The freshfacedandwildeyed08 New Graduates Show is on at the Photographers Gallery, Great Newport St WC2H 7HY 21 June - 6 July 2008

Ali Qasim’s documentary of the last months of the original Manor Gardens, first shown on the Community Channel in November 2007, can now be viewed online here

It’s due to be shown again on Community Channel on Tue 24 Jun at 10:35am.

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By the end of November 2007, less than a month after the new allotment site was occupied, it became clear there were problems with the site. Much of it was extremely hard to dig, vegetables struggled to grow or rotted, and plots became dramatically waterlogged after rain. Before long the soil began to smell rancid. Inappropriate construction methods combined with unsuitable soil are responsible, resulting in months of unnecessary effort by the plotholders displaced here by the Olympics - who have made valiant efforts to start again from scratch.
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From ARD TV’s Nachtmagazin news program, 23rd May 2008.
ARD contrast the green claims of the Olympic authorities with the reality of the destruction of our allotment community. The start of the construction of the huge and expensive stadium is shown to be at the expense of a multicultural green place where “life was good, until the diggers came”.
“Look how bad the soil is, it’s nothing but mud”, says Hassan at the new site.
“There’s no comparison - it was paradise at the old place, this is like gardening in the middle of a swamp” says Reg.
At the end the narrator tells of a gardener having to be rescued from the mud - a ‘Danger of Sinking’ sign is shown with the comment “Extreme gardening with warning sign - Olympic Games for Hassan & Reg”

Watch it online here
“This Was Forever”, by Mark Aitkin and young filmmakers from polkadotsonraindrops, is about Manor Gardens allotments and the struggle of our community to hold its own in spite of Olympic development for the 2012 games.

This film is one of the Films from the River Lee series - filmed over a year until the allotments were demolished in 2007. Funded by First Light.