Bankside Open Spaces Trust is an environmental and volunteering charity, working with people to design, maintain and protect public parks, gardens and open spaces in London SE1. Bankside Open Spaces Trust was set up in 2000 by a group of local people with an aim to improve the area, making it greener and a more beautiful place to live and work. Since then the charity has helped to create and look after over 45 individual parks and gardens in a relatively small area of built-up central London, following the river along from Waterloo in the west to London Bridge in the east. Each site is unique, with its own atmosphere, identity and sense of place.

We have received numerous awards including the UNESCO Man and Biosphere award, London in Bloom Champion of Champions and the MPGA London Spade for our community gardening partnerships. In 2016, Red Cross Garden, where our office is based, was named London in Bloom Small Park of the Year as part of the RHS annual Britain in Bloom award scheme.

The team works closely with local people to ensure that open spaces are created and managed with the involvement of residents, community groups and businesses alike. We do this in a number of ways to ensure maximum input from local people including regular gardening groups, supporting parks steering groups, organising public events, devising educational projects and offering advice to others.

Bankside Open Spaces Trust is a registered charity run by a board of trustees and staff team.