Open Garden Estates 2016

Open Garden Estates is an initiative by Architects for Social Housing (ASH), a collective working to save London council estates under threat of demolition by Government housing policy, local authority estate regeneration programmes and property developers.

Last year (13-14 June, 2015) Open Garden Estates was hosted by three council estates: Cressingham Gardens in Brixton, Central Hill in Crystal Palace, and Knight’s Walk (part of Cotton Gardens Estate) in Kennington.

It was an opportunity for residents to open up their estate’s green areas, communal spaces and private gardens to the public, and help change the widely held but inaccurate perception of council estates as ‘concrete jungles’. Walking tours for visitors were designed to show each estate in its best light, highlight how well they are designed, and increased awareness of the strong and mixed communities that live on them. Above all, it was a chance for estate communities to meet and organise the campaign to save their homes.

This year (18-19 June, 2016) ASH is exporting Open Garden Estates across London.

More than just an opportunity to bring estate communities together, Open Garden Estates is a chance for participating estates to form connections with ASH and other resistance groups offering support and information about how you might save your homes from councils and developers.

ASH is usually only contacted by estates after they have gone through the consultation process, by which time the council has gathered much of the information it needs to argue for the demolition of your homes. To counteract this, we want to use Open Garden Estates as a way to combat the threat of regeneration as early as possible in the process.

More info: opengardenestates.com