Marlborough Sports Garden: seeking partnerships for a healthier future
Marlborough Sports Garden is Bankside Open Spaces Trust’s outdoor, multi-sports facility and community space. Free to access, it’s within walking distance of 12 schools and offers a wide range of sports 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 busy Borough High Street, which serves thousands of residents, workers and tourists every day. With 55,000 visits a year, the garden plays a vital role in combatting inactivity and promoting healthier lifestyles. Currently we use the site to run and host sports activities that benefit around 500 children a year, put on a programme of community events welcoming thousands into the space and share the site with organisations working with older adults and young people with special educational needs or disabilities.
We know Marlborough Sports Garden has the potential to do so much more. This is why we have plans for an ambitious capital project that will enable us to grow visitors numbers to 75,000 and increase the number of people taking part in activities by at least 50%.
Read on to find out more, or download our 2 page summary here.
A vision for Marlborough Sports Garden
With architects Cullinan Studio and through community workshops, a £5 million+ plan for a new Marlborough Sports Garden has been developed. The site’s transformation will enable us to offer 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.
These design proposals have 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.
A sustainable transformation
Bankside Open Spaces Trust has a track record of building sustainable structures and designing climate-resilient green spaces in urban settings. Sustainable principles are therefore guiding the planning, build and day-today running of Marlborough Sports Garden.
Our build is led by circular economy principles, with zero waste being key to the work on site. The project is also part of the ZAP (zero avoidable packaging) project. The new Marlborough Sports Garden will feature an air source heat pump system, solar panels and rainwater collection. To increase shade, improve local air quality, and encourage healthy lifestyles, we'll add climbing plants and food growing beds Marlborough Sports Garden will be financially sustainable too - with improved facilities boosting hire income by over 30% by 2029. This type of income subsidises our free community events and sports activities and enables us to work with many more people.
Corporate partnerships for a new Marlborough Sports Garden
Bankside Open Spaces Trust has already raised over £3 million towards this transformational project. We are now seeking corporate partners to join us in making a real, tangible difference to people's lives.
To find out more about the scheme and becoming a partner, arrange a briefing with our Marc Hope and discover how your company can have a real impact on the health of the local community while achieving your sustainability, ESG and CSR objectives. To chat to Marc: 07799662187 / marc.hope@thewinningtape.com
Your support is vital to improving lives in our 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.
