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Published: 09 June 2011
by DAN CARRIER

IT was donated by a Highgate benefactor and called “The Garden for the Gardenless”.

Waterlow Park was handed over to Londoners in 1889 by former London mayor Sir Sidney Waterlow, who wanted his land to provide fresh air and open spaces for those less fortunate than him.

Now a new project to restore his kitchen garden area, which provided food for his home in Dartmouth Park Hill, is providing an “allotment for the allotmentless” – and giving community groups and schools outdoor space to grow their own vegetables and share gardening tips.

The former kitchen gardens of Sir Sidney have been converted into 10 plots for a range of vegetable growing. 

When Sir Sidney was alive, the garden featured four sections and as well as providing standard Victorian vegetables for his table, he also had large expanses of greenhouses, where his gardeners cultivated such exotic fruits as grapes.

The new garden has been created by the dementia help group Age Matters, the Friends of Waterlow Park, the Camden and Islington Foundation Trust, Highgate Climate Action Network, Brookfield School, N6 kitchen gardeners, Hargrave Park Community School, Holly Lodge residents, the Kentish Town Garden Group, and the Highgate West Hill Group. 

They are growing a mixture of fruit, flowers, vegetables and herbs that park users can visit – and organisers hope the project will inspire locals to grow their own at home.

Friends of Waterlow Park member Christine Fowle has worked on the project for nearly three years.

Before the vegetables could be put in the ground, the Town Hall ran some toxicologist reports on the soil content.

Mrs Fowle said: “It had not been used as a kitchen garden for a long time, and the soil was contaminated with traces of arsenic and lead.”

This is a regular occurrence in city soil, due to pollution levels – and one the Friends have countered by using raised beds.

Mrs Fowle said: “If Sir Sidney came today, he may not recognise it. We have created 10 different beds and put in fresh soil. 

“The Victorians used rather heavy soil improvers, and in this day and age you can’t really grow anything that could be a public health disaster.”

Preparation work on the soil finished six weeks ago, just in time for the summer planting season. 

Now it is blooming with classic British summer vegetables cropping up – ruby chard and spinach, runner beans and peas, rhubarb, radishes and tomatoes. 

Mrs Fowle added: “The point of the project is not just to grow vegetables to share. 

“People from each group can come in and share the space. It is educational as well.”

Brookfield primary school teacher Anna Cooper said: “Pupils and parents have helped to create the school’s kitchen garden. 

“Forty-five children from two year four classes have taken part in the project. 

“One class will come down each week to water and weed the garden. 

“It fits really well with our year group identity of ‘wildlife rangers’. The kids are all really excited about it.’