community gardens – Charlton and Blackheath Amateur Horticultural Society

‘Unearthed: the Power of Gardening’

I visited the ‘Unearthed: The Power of Gardening‘ exhibition (on until Sunday 10 August 2025) at the British Library recently, the third gardening-related exhibition at a non-garden-related institution that I’ve seen in the past few years (I’m sure there have been others!). The first two were ‘Rooted Beings’ at the Wellcome Collection in 2022 and ‘Soil’ at Somerset House earlier this year.

Illustrated herbal in Old English, about 1000-1025.
Unearthed exhibition at the British Library, 2025 — Beautiful gardening illustrations from the 11th and 17th centuries

Sketches of gardening tools by John Evelyn, approx. 1660-1680. Unearthed exhibition at the British Library, 2025 — Beautiful gardening illustrations from the 11th and 17th centuries

This exhibition, as the title suggests, was more about the actual act of gardening than the other two, and as such had quite a lot in common with the permanent display at the Garden Museum. The British Library’s advantage was its access to phenomenal (and in some cases phenomenally old) examples of historical books, and its focus on gardening and gardeners, rather than the gardens.

Have you been to Beckenham Place Park lately?

Signpost in Beckenham Place Park, April 2024

Not too far away (and on the 54 bus route from Charlton and Blackheath!) lies a ‘new’ old park: Beckenham Place Park. The name can be confusing – it lies on the border between the London Boroughs of Bromley and Lewisham, but is run by Lewisham Council. It is larger than you might think, at 96 hectares (well over 200 acres), and stretches from Beckenham Hill railway station in the north to Ravensbourne railway station in the south, west into Beckenham ‘proper’ and east toward Bromley.

Beckenham Place Park information sign (2024) — Park map with trails: download

Beloved of dogwalkers, wild swimmers, park runners, bluebell spotters and vintage shoppers, since Heritage Lottery Funding was awarded in 2016 there have been many changes and a huge increase in community use. Old features of the 18^th century estate have been brought back, playgrounds added and the 1762 mansion (which was formerly a golf club house with a small visitor centre) is now home to artists’ studios, a café, a vintage shop and hosts multiple events.

But to the gardens…

Visit to Community Garden in Open Gardens Festival 2023

Given the hot weather for this year’s Festival and that this is our third, we focused on Gardens we haven’t seen before. So this afternoon we set off to Christchurch School Community Garden to see what was going on there. And we were pleased. It demonstrates what can be done with a pocket of land, off a busy main road, with some funding and lots of enthusiasm and knowledge – and effort. The description on the Festival brochure referred to raised beds for food crops, a community orchard, ornamental borders, a Forest School and a covered meeting hub. They also have a hugelkultur bed, a bee hive, a wildlife pond – and they were selling goji berry plants!

Plant Sale and Community Day 2023

THANK YOU to everyone who supported our Plant Sale and Community Day on May 21st at Charlton House. Whether you donated plants or bought them, you are all heroes! Your generosity will help the Greenwich & Bexley Community Hospice, the Walled Gardens and our speaker programme, with many thanks!

OPG in morning light — The garden first thing, looking beautiful and calm..

Set up started early, we had sooo many plants to get out to the Back Lawn, and all the tables to position according to Mandy’s Grand Plan.

11 am rolled around quickly and the selling started..

Selling plants — I’ll have that one, and that one, and

We shared the day with lots of community groups as well as stalls from the Producers Market and everyone had a great time networking and selling their wares.

London in Bloom awards 2019

Congratulations to local heroes Charlton Community Gardens – Charlton Station and the Community Orchard in Charlton Park for achieving Gold and Outstanding awards at London in Bloom. An inspiration to all of us gardeners!