Friends Rejuvenation of Gipsy Hill

The environment

The garden is amazing and is something that all people comment on. It makes them happy to see the flowers and someone caring for them. The fruit trees we have were donated by extinction rebellion from the protests on Waterloo Bridge and we provided a home for them. We have created a space for flowers to grow and for people to enjoy. The community come together to help tend the garden and to improve the biodiversity of the area by providing plants and habitat.

The local economy

Our project has become a focal point for Gipsy Hill. It is visual and has a very good social media reach so businesses are able to spread the message. With our new mural on the wall outside Gipsy Hill we are able to advertise it as a destination and help businesses build a brand around Gipsy Hill.

Volunteering, jobs & education

We have provided an outlet for people to volunteer and social media channels for people to contribute to. With the scouts doing activities at the garden plus our action day we have a steady stream of people helping. We also get plants and trees donated that we are then able to tend to. The range of plants allows to promote biodiversity in us able to show how companion plants help different species. We now have over 1200 Facebook followers, over 600 Twitter and Instagram followers. A great achievement of the project was to have media boards around the community garden and the station to promote activity day which are themed around the tasks we are carrying out. For those who are not in to gardening we have a research programme investigating the history of Gipsy Hill and the local area. We are in the process of mapping the local trees and putting these on to our interactive map that was created at the start of the Covid-19 outbreak in order to inform people of the local services that were and are available.

Arts, culture & heritage

Our project provided a community asset for us to engage with the Gipsy Hill volunteers and provided a focus on the railway heritage as the garden is built on an old railway siding which was integrated in to its design. With projects to research the history of the area and a space with which to display the old Gipsy Hill Tavern sign and the British Railway Gipsy Hill sign we are able to inform people of the areas heritage. We have obtained the Norwood Gipsies play that was performed at Covent Garden in the 1800's and the play came out of one of our social media links. The first Gipsy Hill crowdfunder associated with the station was for the Gipsy Hill cat. A local cat who visits the station and which has become a much loved figure at the station was unfortunately run over in 2016. A crowdfund campaign was then launched to pay for the vets bills and this inspired us in to action as the area where she frequented at the back of the station was such a tip. This has given the friends a cultural focus to rejuvenate the area and to improve road safety.

Activity, health and leisure

We promoted activity, health and leisure by providing action days for people. These days had a range of tasks depending on the skills of the people attending. All our action days had activities which were geared to children so that parents could help out too.