Leytonstone Art Garden
Tapestry worked with Wood Street Walls (WSW) to propose the Elliot Ashton Art Gardens in Leyton. The design concept turned an empty patch of land opposite the Heathcote and Star pub in Leytonstone into bookable art walls beside a community garden in memory of local artist, the late Elliot Ashton. The landscape and public realm plans prepared by Tapestry formed part of the Spacehive fund raising initiative to crowd source funding to deliver the project, with £5,000 also confirmed through the Mayor of London’s Greener City Fund. The Leytonstone Art Gardens project is also a collaboration between Wood Street Walls CIC & UAL Central Saint Martins Design Against Crime Unit, that aims to give artists safe places to paint in a new public community garden without fear of recrimination, whilst helping reduce the levels of CO2 within the area from the new planting. Artists will be able to book via an online portal, where photos of all the artwork will be held for the public to see. Permission for the space has been granted by both Waltham Forest Council and Network Rail who own the green space and arches respectively.
The initial layout of how the space was designed by Tapestry with an ambition to work with members of the local community to help co-create the space, with a drop in consultation located at The Heathcote & Star pub opposite. At least 5 new trees will be planted to help support Waltham Forest Council's commitment to plant at least 1,200 trees in the borough. The new community garden space will have a dedicated website for people to upload, stories, songs, and feedback of the rotating artwork, with custom made benches with hand crank powered speakers designed by architecture practice BAT Studio.
“We're delighted to secure The Mayor's Greener City funding for what we believe to be an important part of London's culture. Providing artists safe places to paint & express themselves in addition to affordable artist workspace is key to the capital's cultural infrastructure. We hope this will be one of many new legal walls popping up in Waltham Forest and all over London.”
—Mark Clack, co-founder, Wood Street Walls CIC
“Communities are crying out for high quality green space in their local areas, and I have listened to their great ideas. Whether it’s designing a new garden, planting trees or greening school playgrounds, these projects will transform local spaces, improve health and wellbeing and help clean up our toxic air – and young Londoners are getting involved too. I want London to become the UK’s first National Park City, with more than half the capital green by 2050 – and we’re already delivering. It’s vital that, as our capital continues to grow, all Londoners have access to open, green areas, and these projects will help make our city a greener, healthier place to live.”
—Sadiq Khan, Mayor of London
“We are thrilled to be part of this project, which acts as a natural progression for us, both from our ongoing work on Social Safer places and our work exploring new ways for visual voices, including street art, to thrive and invite engagement among many voices in urban contexts. For so long, the only way to easily impact our local environments has been to complain. Now, with this project and others that Central Saint Martins and Wood Street Walls are involved in, we are opening up more ways for multiple publics to get involved in pro-active and hands-on ways. This initiative will enable visual works and people-led audio content become a dynamic part of everyday life in the area. If you have ideas or want to change the experience at this site, come, speak with words or pictures and make it happen.”
—Marcus Willcocks, UAL: Central Saint Martins Design Against Crime Research Unit.
