Gardening
Allotments
Losing the plot
Manor Garden Allotments dig in against 2012 Olympics, reports Camilla Swift
On the east marshes of Hackney on a wedge of land bounded by the River Lea and the Grand Union Canal sit the century-old Manor Garden Allotments. Wild plum line the banks, crested newts and dragonflies live in the ponds. Eighty plots provide food for over 150 families - all organic, no packaging, no food miles.
People of all ages, classes and ethnic groups come to garden, cook, eat, swap plants and gossip, share food and party. Some plot holders have been growing food here for nearly sixty years, starting with their parents and even their grandparents; others have arrived more recently, from London and as far afield as Turkey, Cyprus, Italy and the West Indies. Now chillies and callaloo thrive alongside the more traditional allotment staples of cabbages and potatoes
There's a farmers' market, and a plant sale, and inner-city schoolchildren come to learn about real food. But above all here is an example of a truly diverse and multicultural community,living healthily, growing its own food, supporting wildlife. In an area more usually known for violence and urban blight, Manor Garden Allotments are a small but shining example of what life could still be like.
But all this is set to change.
In just under eight weeks, this oasis of bio-diversity will be bulldozed to make way for a temporary concrete footpath for the 'Green' Olympics. Once they are turfed off their Allotments in April, the Manor Garden plot holders will have nowhere to go, and a way of life that has survived nearly a hundred years, two world wars and great social change will simply disappear; another small piece of London's community life broken up forever.
Manor Garden Allotments were built on a Victorian rubbish dump by local philanthropist, Major the Hon. Arthur Villiers. On his death in 1969 Villiers bequeathed the site 'in perpetuity'; telling the plot holders 'you'll never be thrown off here... you'll be here forever', but perpetuity hadn't reckoned on the London Olympics.
The members of Manor Garden Allotments are not 'anti-Olympics' and welcome the potential for regeneration brought by the Olympic development but they remain determined to find a compromise solution. They wish to be part of the 2012 Olympic Games not to be destroyed by them.
As a British institution, the allotment is as familiar as the Tower of London, the black cab and the British Bobby (despite rapidly becoming as rare a sight as the latter). Is this not a missed opportunity for the Olympic planners? Would it not be more imaginative to incorporate the Manor Garden Allotments into the Olympic plan instead of simply concreting them over? As Julie Sumner, the Manor Garden Society Secretary, points out "There's all this talk about the Green Olympics and yet they're taking out the greenest thing they've got."
Campaign details
The campaign to save Manor Garden Allotments can be found at www.lifeisland.org
Further information
The London Assembly carried out the most comprehensive survey of allotments in the capital - and its main findings, published in the report A Lot to Lose on 25 October 2006, were:
- More than 1,500 plots have been lost over the past 10 years - an area the size of more than 50 football pitches
- Demand for allotments has never been higher due to the growing interest in organic food, particularly among women and young families
- There are more than 4,300 people in London's allotment waiting lists - 3,000 more than a decade ago
- In some areas there is a 10 year wait for allotments
