Our impact
Every year we work to serve our local communities by
Enhancing health and wellbeing
Empowering and engaging local communities
Transforming open spaces
Read about the impact our work had in 2022/23 in our Impact Report here.
Enhancing health and wellbeing
We welcome residents, businesses and other individuals to get involved in our outstanding open spaces.
Our opportunities include:
Community Involvement and Volunteering
In 2022/23 we engaged with and uplifted a wide range of people from our local community through volunteering. Our Community Gardening Volunteers contributed 4,292 hours to keep our parks looking beautiful.
Outreach
In 2022/23, we greatly diversified the range of people we work with through community outreach. Including:
Refugees and asylum seekers through Breaking Barriers.
Local community groups like Southwark College and the Outside Project (LGBTQ+).
Neurodivergent individuals through bulb planting and seed sowing sessions.
Those affected by the energy crisis through a Warm Hub at Living Space and via our partnership with The Bridge.
Older people with Blackfriars Settlement.
Corporate Volunteering
Our Green Team corporate workdays get people out of the office and support our work too.
In 2022/23 100% of our Green Team participants said they would recommend our corporate workdays to other groups.
73% of our volunteers felt more appreciated as a result of working in our spaces.
Empowering and engaging local communities
We work to empower local people to care for green spaces where they live. We also engage communities by creating opportunities for them to come together in our green spaces and community facilities.
We host events and activities across our sites, including at our community centre Living Space, which is a hub for youth, sports and family groups throughout the year. We connect people growing where they live with our Green Hub and train new gardeners through our free Future Gardeners horticultural course. Below you can see the impact of these activites on the people we work with over the past year.
Marlborough Sports Garden - project focus
Marlborough Sports Garden is a rare open space in London’s densely populated SE1 where around 93% of dwellings are flats with little, if any, outdoor space. The area also has high poverty rates. In Southwark 40% of children in Year 6 are obese. Our accessible sports facilities and coaching at MSG are free or heavily subsidised. Essential for enhancing health and wellbeing and tackling rising health inequalities.
In 2022/23 our work at Marlborough Sports Garden included:
Sports coaching for children and young people
FREE coached afterschool sports sessions for ages 4-11, designed in consultation with our young participants.
10 different sports on offer across three afternoons a week, including beach volleyball, roller skating to music, touch rugby and girls football.
2 terms of full afterschool sports coaching, plus year round football and girls’ football session.
459 registered participants took part in our afterschool and holiday multi-sports programmes.
50% of places on holiday multisport camps were free to children from low-income households.
Sports sessions for older children and adults
► Active Communities Network ran free weekend football sessions for ages 4-11 and 16+ and free school holiday football tournaments for teenagers.
► Free weekly walking football sessions for people aged 55+ living with cancer and other chronic health conditions.
Community Events
We host and run events to share our spaces with our community. Our largest event is Bankside Open Spaces Festival, which takes over three parks and two of the surrounding streets. The festival gives local people the chance to perform, participate and promote their small businesses. It is also a fantastic opportunity for us, alongside like-minded organisations, to engage people in the importance of green spaces and protecting our environment.
A special Platinum Jubilee Bankside Open Spaces Festival for 20,000 people
Events to celebrate the seasons: a Green Halloween in Marlborough Sports Garden, the festive Winter Warmer in Red Cross Garden and an Easter themed Treasure Hunt across both gardens.
Garden tours for Chelsea Fringe
Open garden events for London Open Garden Squares Weekend
“I wanted to say a belated yet heartfelt thank you for an amazing festival for the Bankside Open Spaces Festival Street Party last June…. I particularly welcomed the service at the start which remembered the victims of the London Bridge terror attacks. As someone of faith and spirituality, I endeavour to take time to express gratitude. Equally, I loved the inclusivity of the day, from the range of stall providers and variety of activities. Additionally, you did a fantastic job of having recycling facilities and the way you used the various streets and space was excellent.” - 2022 Festival Goer -
Transforming open spaces
We protect and improve the network of green spaces in our community. Many people in London’s SE1 do not have a garden or open space of their own where they live, Bankside Open Spaces Trust wants to ensure everyone has somewhere to grow, play, and just breathe. We also work to make space for nature in our city - we know how vital green spaces are for mitigating the impact of climate change locally too. Green spaces can cool cities, they can absorb excess rainfall and they clean our air too.
In 2022/23 we worked to transform open spaces by
Transforming open spaces - looking forward
In 2022/23 we finalised our designs for the final phase of our redevelopment of Marlborough Sports Garden. Over the next few years we will be fundraising for and starting work on our community’s ambitious vision for a sports facility that will give thousands of people the opportunity to participate in sports and other activities to boost their health and wellbeing.
Key features of the development:
A new welcoming entrance
A new community hub with flexible indoor sports studio, outdoor classroom, viewing platform and spectator seating
A community café and events space with accessible toilets
A new four-lane running track
Areas of shade
Site-wide greening
The local community helped to shape these award-winning plans – which will see the garden gain a new sustainably built and run building alongside upgraded sports facilities. With indoor toilets and sports spaces, we will be able to greatly maximise our hire income at the site. This in turn will allow us to develop more events and sports sessions for people and groups who are sometimes excluded from these kinds of activities.
““The sessions have helped my personal growth/
knowledge and it has been a grounding experience for me.””
