The Phoenix Garden

Today I thought I would spend a little bit of time in the most peaceful urban community park I know and love - The Phoenix Garden.

Situated just off the madness of Shaftesbury Avenue and Charing Cross Road, and overlooked by St. Giles-in-the-Fields parish church, it is a wonderful little haven of seasonal blooms, butterflies and bees and friendly gardeners.

The garden is managed privately by volunteers as a community garden so it's not in itself a 'public' park but is open to everyone, with 4 simple rules: No Drugs, No alcohol, No dogs and No bikes. One of the gardners said it's been there since the early 80's, 1984 to be exact, and was built on the site of a car park. It it the last surviving of Covent Garden's original 7 community gardens and is leased from the London Borough of Camden for a 'peppercorn' rent. [In legal terminology, a peppercorn is a very small payment, used to satisfy the requirements for the creation of a legal contract. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peppercorn_(legal)]

There are many species of birds passing through the garden, as well as central London's largest population of common frogs (probably) and various other little insects and invertebrates. The head gardner Chris is very proud of their habitat creation in the garden and so they should be. Londoners should be far more focussed in habitat-creation when designing terraces, balconies and roof gardens. In February 2008 the GLA issued a technical report on living roofs in the capital so there is hopeful support. Urban honey is supposedly much more tasty than country honey because of the concentration of various flowers....but thats a whole other honey pot....

The Phoenix Garden has a great little website, with some really interesting historical information [and photos and maps] about the site and vicinity dating right back to the 12th Century! http://www.thephoenixgarden.ik.com

They organise various events throughout the year including 'grow your own' - seasonal planting workshops and various other little quirky tea parties etc....and more importantly volunteer days to help out. [See their website for more info.]

It really is an inspiration to see a place that has literally grown out of the rubble, bring so much hope and happiness to the neighbourhood residents, workers and passers through...reading the comments page on the site is enough.