Marlborough Sports Garden redevelopment

Support through partnerships

Marlborough Sports Garden is Bankside Open Spaces Trust’s outdoor, multisport facility and community space. Free to access, it’s within walking distance of eight primary schools and offers a wide range of sporting activities, from football to roller skating, in addition to hosting community events.

Marlborough Sports Garden is located in the heart of an urban community just behind the very busy Borough High Street which serves thousands of residents, workers and tourists every day. We have plans to harness the potential of this unique space through an ambitious re-development capital project.

We worked with architects Cullinan Studio to create a vision for the Garden. This £3 million+ transformation will enable Bankside Open Spaces Trust to offer much more to our community. The improved site will provide a wider range of physical activity opportunities and will appeal to a more diverse audience with upgraded outdoor spaces, proper indoor toilets and changing facilities, a welcoming café offering healthy options and cooking workshops, and indoor studios to allow us to host community groups and classes year-round. The proposed facilities (fully DDA compliant) will also give us more opportunities for hires, boosting the Garden’s income stream and subsidising community events and activities.

Recently these design proposals picked up two architecture awards — winning the Future Place category at The Pineapples, which celebrate public spaces, and the Community Prize at the New London Architecture Awards.

Corporate partnerships - we are seeking corporate partners to support fundraising for Marlborough Sports Garden’s redevelopment. Your support is vital to improving lives within the local community.

The case for Marlborough Sports Garden

URBANISATION

Residents face other challenges of inner-city living including high air pollution and a proliferation of fast-food encouraging a poor diet and inactivity. Recent statistics for Borough and Southwark streets indicate that 71% of dwellings are without private or shared garden. The Southwark Open Space Strategy recorded that Borough and Bankside are below the borough standard for park provision. Source: Urban Health Index (UHI) for Lambeth and Southwark

OBESITY

Southwark has the highest rate of childhood obesity at year 6 of any local authority in England. Half of all adults in Southwark are overweight or obese. 52.8% adults (16+) in Southwark do no physical activity or sport at all. Source: Everybody’s Business - Southwark Healthy Weight Strategy 2016-2021, Southwark Health and Wellbeing Board

DEPRIVATION

Around a third of all neighbourhoods in Southwark are among the 20% most deprived in England. Locally, just over a quarter of children aged 0-15 are living in households claiming out of work benefits. This is significantly higher than Southwark borough average and indicates high levels of child poverty. Source: National Index of Multiple Deprivation

POOR PROVISION OF OUTDOOR SPACE IN SCHOOLS

Almost 400,000 pupils (30% of all pupils in London) attend schools with less than ten square metre per pupil of open space (the minimum recommended area by DfE). While 800,000 pupils attend schools with less than ten square metre per pupil of green space. Source: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33742376/

Marlborough Sports Garden gives users access to happier, healthier lives

LASTING PARTICIPATION - through our core programmes, we seek to encourage a love of sport from an early age. We know children who participate in sport are much more likely to continue to take part as an adult and in turn this has a huge impact on their health and wellbeing. Sadly, children who are inactive, overweight or obese are likely to remain so in later life. Currently, over a half of adults in Southwark are overweight or obese.

TARGETED CHANGE - we work hard to create a programme which appeals to groups who are less likely to exercise or who have found themselves exercising less since the pandemic.

RENTED SPACES - much of our work is subsidised or free so even the most marginalised can participate. Pitch hires subsidise this activity and secures the site’s long-term financial sustainability. Hires also support ongoing maintenance to keep our facilities at the highest standard.

WELLBEING - in addition to the physical health agenda, as part of our wider vision to establish healthy habits for life, we have developed a more holistic programme encompassing principles of healthy eating and wellbeing.

HIGH FOOTFALL - Marlborough Sports Garden’s gate counters recorded a footfall of approximately 212,000 in 2019. Hundreds of children and families walk through the site every day to get to local schools. The site is well placed to have a huge impact on young lives.

The Future - your support can change lives

Marlborough Sports Garden has the potential to become a local hub for mental and physical wellbeing. With purpose-built indoor spaces, upgraded sports infrastructure, and improved facilities, the site will enable us to reach even more groups most at risk from ill health and social isolation. The development will hugely boost our hire income – with pitch and indoor space hires subsidising our work within the community.

With your support we can ensure Marlborough Sports Garden reaches its full potential. We’re seeking partners to help make our award-winning development plans a reality. With top quality facilities and subsidised sports provision, we know we can have a huge impact on the health and wellbeing of our community for years to come.

We know that partnerships works best when they are mutually beneficial, which is why we have a range of ways your company can get involved to support Marlborough Sports Garden and the community it serves:

CORPORATE DONOR PACKAGES - three tiers of support with benefits to you and your colleagues. To find out more email: sports@bost.org.uk

DONATIONS AND WORKDAYS - we support employee fundraising and offer employee volunteering packages.

PRO BONO - can your company donate expertise or equipment to help us save vital funds?

However you choose to support us, we promise a Bankside Open Spaces Trust partnership will be as valuable and rewarding to your company as it will to us and our community.