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The Cranbrook Square Garden published their Delivery Report!10 months ago
Delivered 29 October 2022
Impact data and claims within this report are provided by the project creator and have not been independently verified by Spacehive.
By Garden City Redbridge Residents Association (GCRRA)
The Square Garden next to Valentines Park needs some TLC! Residents want to preserve its natural beauty and encourage wildlife, while creating a colourful space to bring the community together.
Residents already love and care for this garden set out over 100 years ago in what used to be part of the garden of Valentines Mansion. Would you like to help? We are planning to repaint the railings and gate, as well as replant the perimeter beds to give the garden all-round colour for the enjoyment of residents, passers-by and visitors. Wouldn’t it be lovely to make the garden more inviting for shared community events? We’d love to hear your ideas for encouraging and learning about London wildlife, such as a Butterfly Count or setting up a bug hotel in the heart of the garden. The aim is to restore and maintain the historic charm of this gated garden; enhance its beauty with colourful planting, regular cleaning and pruning; celebrate and share each other’s cultures, starting with planting a Christmas tree to decorate each year; preserve and encourage learning about a tiny “green jungle” for London wildlife in this urban space; organise events to bring the community together.
What we'll deliver:
Why it's a great idea:
A focal point The Square Garden will provide a meeting point for local families and individuals to have a sense of shared purpose, either through volunteering or enjoying social and cultural experiences. Maintaining the garden regularly will deter anti-social behaviour. Pride in our local area will be encouraged as will a sense of shared responsibility. Visitors to the award-winning Valentines Park often pass by The Square Garden and its restoration will complement the beauty of the area. We fully expect to develop all sorts of exciting ideas for the future suggested by any member of the community. We hope to encourage volunteering and a sense of us all having a stake in something for the future. We are fortunate to have this “oasis” for wildlife with such a well-developed natural landscape at its heart.
Steps to get it done:
Would you like to find out more about the heritage aspect of this garden and the connection to Valentines Mansion?
Gallery
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Much has happened since the last update and the garden is currently hibernating. The railings are fully restored and repainted, the garden cleared, tidied and partially replanted. The compost bins are labelled, in use and we are spreading the word how to compost. Hundreds of bulbs have been planted for the Spring, a bench installed and painted and we clear litter when it is left. (Grrr…). The Spring and Summer planting is planned and our completion date is extended to the Autumn 2022 in order to complete the seasonal planting. We’ve already held some lovely events, Cakes In The Square, Family Planting Day, decorated the trees with lights for Christmas and used the Square Garden as one of the scenes for shooting a Victorian Christmas film shown at an event in Valentines Mansion, with neighbours dressed in Victorian costume! We have had support from the Celebrating Redbridge team and look forward to continuing this exciting project and growing the gardening and children’s teams. Please leave us a message if you want to be involved.
Quick update… clearing of the perimeter beds and redesign of planting is done. Some of the beautiful old roses we pruned and fed have been blooming, others removed. Just need to keep on top of weeds and leaf-fall. Tree work for the centre is organised for this month, then we’ll start to see the real transformation, to coincide with finishing the rubbing down and repair of railings and gate. There will soon be a ramp into garden to make access easier. We’ve held a well-attended community event CAKES IN THE SQUARE (see our website). The compost bin has been constructed and materials gathered to build the bug hotels. Repainting will start later in September… we are nearly there! All in time for OCTOBER 16th CHILDREN’S BULB PLANTING… all welcome! From 10 am. Then a big effort to dig in compost and start the autumn planting. Do get in touch if you can help. GCRRA@outlook.com
No-mow May has given us the beauty of a host of buttercups, daisies, other wild flowers and clover in the lawn. The daffodils have fully died down so today’s job was to weed and dig over the perimeter beds, check on and water the roses, sunflowers, cornflowers and marigolds. We’ve planted a few pelargoniums and delphiniums at the front to give us some colour while we are working on the railings. Here’s hoping the delphiniums survive! Please remember to get in touch if you want to join us! GCRRA@outlook.com
It’s the final day of our campaign so we want to take a moment to thank all our backers for helping us make this happen. You can see from this photo that the hard work now begins! Not to late to let us know you want to join in! But we have made a great start and have done initial preparation of 10 out of 52 railing sections! Bear with us while it looks tatty but the children’s sunflowers are growing! As are our ideas for the garden. We plan to set up some more plant swaps at weekends so please follow us on Twitter @CranbrookGarden. We look forward to seeing you! Generally Saturdays and Sundays 2-3pm is best time to be sure someone is there. Thank you again to everyone and massive thanks to the Redbridge Neighbourhood CIL #CommunityCrowdfunding fund.
Whoop, 30 people have pledged since fundraising began!
We are so excited to announce officially ...... drum roll! ..... we have reached our #Spacehive funding target thanks to a second large pledge from the Redbridge Neighbourhood CIL fund! #CommunityCrowdfunding. Enormous thanks go to all our backers and helpers! So the next stage is to start the railings and gate restoration and agree the planting design. While the restoration takes place, the gardening group will continue to keep the garden tidy and put some summer colour in. Please keep following us on our website for updates, news and announcements from June onwards. https://gardencityredbridge.wordpress.com/ and on Twitter @CranbrookGarden.
How will the money be spent?Total £6,546
Costs Breakdown
This shows how money raised for the project will be spent. These costs have been confirmed by the project's Delivery Manager and verified.
Overfunding
This project is enabled for overfunding. If the project hits its funding goal before the end of the campaign period, any extra funds raised will be spent (in order of priority) on:
Total £6,546
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Who are we?
We are the GCRRA!
The Garden City (Redbridge) Residents Association is made up of residents living in Cranbrook Ward, in streets created from what used to be part of the garden of Valentines Mansion. We like to get together to support each other, share experiences, concerns and look after our area. This has given rise to The Cranbrook Square Garden Project, which we are very excited about!
If you would like to find out more, please contact us!
The Square Garden is in The Square, just off Bethell Avenue, between Cranbrook Road and Valentines Park.
Project Owner: Garden City Redbridge Residents Association (GCRRA) The Project Owner takes legal responsibility for receiving and spending the funds raised and ensuring the project is delivered.
