Marlborough Sports Garden, a long-time community recreation space in London Bridge, has been regenerated and reopened, featuring unique hexagonal planters made from MEDITE TRICOYA EXTREME.
Transforming the once graffitied concrete space into an urban oasis, the planters were a central feature at the official opening, attended by British Olympian Tom Daley and MP Jo Cox’s sister Kim, alongside her parents Mr and Mrs Leadbeater.
Some may recognise these planters from this year’s Ecobuild exhibition back in March, where they made up a ‘pocket park’ designed by The Edible Bus Stop, an award-winning landscape architecture and design consultancy, in partnership with MEDITE SMARTPLY. These planters have been donated to Bankside Open Spaces Trust (BOST) who coordinated the regeneration of Marlborough Sports Garden and will continue to manage it.
MEDITE TRICOYA EXTREME (MTX) was chosen for its exceptional capabilities to be extremely hardwearing in outdoor conditions, even in contact with soil for up to 25 years. It’s also sustainably manufactured in the UK, using FSC certified wood sourced from fast-growing pine forests in Ireland. The planters now sit along the edges of Marlborough Sports Garden, filled with live trees and plants which were kindly donated by Palmstead Nursery in Kent.
Between MEDITE SMARTPLY’s partnership with The Edible Bus Stop and BOST’s ongoing agenda to develop communities and make the London SE1 area a greener, friendlier place to live, Marlborough Sports Garden has been transformed into a design-led, active space, with an ecological, community preoccupation. Helen John of BOST said: “We are delighted to have benefitted from the kind donation of the planters by MEDITE SMARTPLY. The planters really put the ‘garden’ into Marlborough Sports Garden.”
Speaking about the garden Tom Daley said: “This area of London doesn’t have much outdoor space so I am delighted to see this new facility up and running. I hope local school children get a huge amount of use and enjoyment from it. It’s really important that young people have places like this to play and exercise in. Well done BOST for redeveloping the Marlborough Sports Garden and providing this fantastic space for everyone.”
The garden, which has been community recreation ground for over 100 years, plays an important role in promoting the health and wellbeing of nearby residents. The MTX planters will see an entire generation of children who will use the garden grown up before they will need to be replaced.
The garden’s transformation is thanks to local residents and corporate volunteers who painted over graffiti and planted the planters. There is a football pitch, sand court, a decking for picnics, basketball facilities, and a table tennis area. Seating areas nestle amongst the teal coloured planters to create areas of urban calm, where people can relax and enjoy this unique space.
At the opening, the Cox-Leadbeater family planted a rockrose in memory of the late MP, affirming the family atmosphere those who worked on the community garden have hoped would be brought to the space.
Photo credits to Natalie Romero
