Since the beginning of 2022, Jupiter Woods has collaborated with Grow Lewisham to dedicate its outdoor spaces to community food growing for the local area. The project has initially seen the transformation of our back garden into a growing space, and is currently aimed at repurposing the underused outdoor areas between Rollins Street, Winslade Estate and Bridgehouse Meadows into spaces for the local community, centered around food growing, education, and recreation.

The project responds to the conditions this area sits within: the site is indeed undergoing huge urban change with the ‘New Bermondsey’ masterplan bringing 3500 new homes and high rise buildings to the area. Bridgehouse Gardens wants to generate a space where people can become more resilient through this transition, building a strong sense of community, belonging and custodianship of spaces through collective growth and regenerative practices.

The repurposing of these spaces responds to the aims of: improving biodiversity and air quality, improving access and engagement with outdoor spaces through the creation of teaching and wellbeing gardens for school children and adults; creating solutions to food poverty by providing fresh produce, engaging communities and individuals of all ages in the shaping of their local spaces: understanding resources, challenges, and benefits in the practice of caring for our environment and for each other.

We have spent the last ten months connecting with local communities through events and workshops hosted at our space. These activities have allowed to begin a process of co-design for the new growing spaces, that will be built responding to the needs and desires of the people living locally, while following the principles of permaculture and organic gardening.

Over the next months, we will keep developing these relationships and collaborations while we start creating the first growing spaces in the area.