Buxton Road Gardens is a pioneering approach to delivering new public improvements in Waltham Forest – it breaks new ground by bringing together an unexpected group of project partners: Mission Grove Primary School, resident-led community organisation, St. James Street Big Local (SJSBL) and the Councils Highways team. Our team assisted SJSBL to source match-funding for the scheme through the Mayor of London’s, Grow Back Greener Fund and this helped in forging the broader working partnership.

The resident-led initiative is a crucial piece of enhanced and new public realm linking a residential street and local school to their wider neighbourhood through greening – a sequence of spaces to spend time, nurture and grow plants, and encounter nature and wildlife. It offers a range of green spaces including a woodland area, resident plots, rainwater gardens and a new school nature garden.

The scheme successfully delivers on some of the Mayor of London’s key priorities of de-paving, SUDs, increasing tree canopy cover, enhancing local bio-diversity and providing a learning resource for the local school. The comprehensive program of engagement activities with residents and the school has fostered communal stewardship and care for the new green spaces.