Bankside Open Spaces Trust

What a day at Royal Horticultural Society's Wisley Garden at the LONDON IN BLOOM Awards! Four Gold awards and one Silver Gilt Award for our community parks across London's SE1. Plus we are honoured to the winner of the Urban Community Category alongside our partners in urban greening - Better Bankside and Southwark Council. The awards celebrate parks and green spaces that improve their local environment. Our parks were judged by experts earlier this year and we are thrilled with the results - particularly with Waterloo green's Gold Award, which reflects the efforts our Parks Team and volunteers have put into this important green space. #LondnInBloom #Parks #OpenSpaces #GreenSpaces #UrbanCommunities [Image caption: 6 images. The first shows our awards on a background image of a blue sky. The others show our award winning parks and people enjoying them.]

We are pleased to announce that Marc Hope of The Winning Tape Ltd will be supporting Bankside Open Spaces Trust over the next year by helping to develop our partnership structure and framework. As well as promoting our work in urban green spaces, Marc will be engaging potential funders and partners in our multi-million pound sustainable redevelopment of Marlborough Sports Garden. Our much-loved community sports facility in Southwark is a rare open space in an area (near Borough High Street) where most households lack gardens. It’s also where we provide low-cost sports coaching and other activities those often priced out of sport. Our award-winning redevelopment is focused on transforming Marlborough Sports Garden into a hub for community wellbeing activities, adding indoor and upgraded sports facilities to ensure people can stay active all year round. Marc will be bringing his knowledge, contacts and skills to this vital project having played a significant role, especially in partnerships, in Olympic, Paralympic and Commonwealth Sports, major events and grassroots sport/physical activity for all ages over the last 27 years. Working with the likes of our local Business Improvement District members and regeneration organisations, together we hope to bring real social impact to Bankside. Read more about our redevelopment, and how it's powered by partnerships, here: https://lnkd.in/eQA9bVbA 

We love the challenge Deerns UK team have set themselves. There are so many benefits to walking and they've add a new one - boosting local green spaces and community activities by choosing to support Bankside Open Spaces Trust! Thank you team 💚

We do love action shots from our volunteering sessions with businesses in London! Thanks to Knight Frank and Landsec for giving Mint Street Park a bit of TLC. Mint Street Park park holds a Green Flag Award for excellence and that's testament to volunteering days like this one! Thanks for helping us to give our community a beautiful space to meet, play and relax.

🌿 Today is a community focused day at Bankside Open Space Trust! We're helping to celebrate the ongoing transformation of Emma Cons Gardens with a Community Dig Day, our Future Gardeners team are heading to London Wildlife Trust's Green Careers Showcase and we have our Waterloo Green Steering Group tonight from 6pm too. We're looking forward to spending the day with friendly faces old and new - and talking all things parks and gardens at: 🌱 Community Dig Day at Emma Cons Gardens   10:30am - 4:30pm   Join us at Emma Cons Gardens for a day of gardening! Meet your neighbours and help plant a dry garden filled with low-maintenance plants like Verbena and ornamental grasses that will bring colour all year round.  Stay for the whole session or just pop in for an hour. Email [email protected] for details 🌸 Green Careers Showcase Walthamstow Wetlands 3.30pm-7pm https://lnkd.in/eckJmvBd 🗣️ Waterloo Millennium Green Steering Group 6pm - 8pm   Join us at Living Space, Waterloo Road, for exciting updates on pond planting, wildlife zones, and biodiversity in the park. Meet our Parks Manager, Joe, and learn how you can get involved. Enjoy tea, cake, and great conversations with the community!  We’d love to see you at one (or all!) of these events and be a part of building a greener, more connected community. 💚 #Community #Gardening #Waterloo

'The Ballad of Lost Children' discussion on BBC Radio 4 Today caught our attention with it's focus on Southwark and the Borough's rapidly falling pupil numbers. Southwark parents Ness and Toby inspired the segment asking "Are children being designed out of our cities." While the borough has twice the drop in birth rates than the rest of London (20%) and the cost of living is pushing families away, the area's rapid development is part of the problem too. Many new flats are too expensive or small for families, and often green space and amenities are lost to make way for them. We were founded by local people fighting to protect and improve their local green spaces, and many of those who led our early campaigning were local families. This is why were continue to work alongside our local councils and developers to ensure the community's voices are heard when spaces change. Together we work to preserve our open spaces, and create new ones too. It is also why Bankside Open Spaces Trust is investing so much into our community sports facility Marlborough Sports Garden. This much needed public space near Borough High Street is where we provide low cost sports coaching and other activities for children and young people, and other groups, who are often priced out of accessing sport. Our capital project aims to transform the space into a community hub with top quality sports facilities inside and out for the benefit of local people. https://lnkd.in/eQA9bVbA It is heartening to see the passion for our boroughs, and the will to conserve communities - we're proud to be part of these efforts. If you want to listen you'll find the piece at 1.36 here: https://lnkd.in/e8br8D9G #Southwark #GreenSpaces #CommunityChampions

Our free horticultural course is growing. We have two courses in different London locations taking place this autumn, and another in the planning stages for early 2025! Future Gardeners Green Skills Training at based at the Skills Centre Build East with work experience in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park will begin on 30th September. Applications are currently open - this free six-week course is only open to people living in the boroughs of Newham and Tower Hamlets. More here: https://lnkd.in/ewcqDrGy This course is is funded by: London Legacy Development Corporation, idverde UK, The Skills Centre, Future Gardeners, London Borough of Newham, London Borough of Tower Hamlets, UK Government, Mayor of London. Future Gardeners in our usual Bankside Open Spaces Trust location will also begin soon at our Living Space centre in Waterloo. AND we're advertising our Future Gardeners South East programme in Thamesmead too. This course will take place in early 2025 in partnership with Peabody and Maylim, and will run for 8 weeks. As per all our course, students will gain a Level 1 City and Guilds Award qualification. If you, or a friend or family member are interested you can register your interest via our form here: https://lnkd.in/e8cYqyeg #GreenCareers #Learning #EnvironmentalJobs #GreenJobs #CareerGoals #CareerChange #JobSeekers

Just a week to go until we join green organisations and young people at London Wildlife Trust's Green Careers Showcase 2024! Aimed at 16-25-year-olds to find out about careers in the green sector and for employers to meet future candidates, the Green Careers Showcase takes place at the wonderful Walthamstow Wetlands. We'll be there to chat all things Future Gardeners - that's our free course for those wanting to enter the horticultural industry and celebrate outdoor careers. So if you are aged 16-25 and love nature, or know someone who is and does - check out https://lnkd.in/eckJmvBd and pop down to Walthamstow Wetlands on Thursday 19th September, 3.30pm-7pm. It's free! Plus you'll: - Hear inspirational speakers   - Meet employers from the environment sector   - Find training, apprenticeship and job opportunities    - Try practical, hands-on workshops in nature conservation  Supported by London Youth and London Borough of Waltham Forest. Find out about Future Gardeners here: https://lnkd.in/e8cYqyeg #GreenCareers #CareersShowcase #GreenJobs #LoveNature #WalthamstowWetlands

This summer we've grown more than plants - we've grown smiles and connections thanks to a wonderful partnership with Waterloo Community Counselling. Together with Our Community Engagement Facilitator, Mus, they created a Gardening Club for members of their Multi-Ethnic Counselling Service. This vital service provides free mother-tongue counselling to migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers in over 30 languages. Tragically, recent events have really highlighted the importance of compassion and support for those fleeing persecution or war. We are so proud to have been able to work with this fantastic group of people. The Gardening Club aims to equip individuals with gardening skills and confidence, ultimately encouraging them to join our volunteer groups. Volunteering can be a pathway to a career in horticulture, we're delighted to help foster new gardeners while supporting the health and wellbeing of those who have faced significant challenges. With our support, the group has transformed a blank space in Waterloo into a thriving garden, filled with vegetables, flowers, and pollinator-friendly plants like dahlias, sweet peas, lavender, and abelia. A big thank you to the City Bridge Foundation and the The National Lottery Community Fund (thank you players!) for making this possible - your support enables us to continue to diversify our programmes and work with more people in urban green spaces. Learn more about Waterloo Community Counselling: https://waterloocc.co.uk #CommunityEngagement #GardeningForGood #Horticulture #SupportRefugees #MentalHealth #Volunteering #UrbanGardening #SocialImpact #NationalLottery

Our Future Gardeners team get out and about engaging people in our free horticultural training course. LSBU Green Skills Hub has been a supportive way for them to do this. Our course has benefitted from positive students who have graduated and moved into outdoor careers. Find out more about our free course here: