Copeland park’s new green pocket park launch coincided with the 2022 Peckham Festival. During the festival the space hosted workshops and has since been used for different events. A modular system of movable structures are animated by a colour palette developed with the planting scheme for year-round interest and biodiversity.

 

 

Who is on the project team? 

 

CampbellCadey - architects

 

Fixology – builders 

 

Justine Fox – colour specialist consultant 

 

Provender Nurseries – planting consultant and sponsor 

 

Graphstone – paint consultant and sponsor 

 

Berkeley Homes – sponsor

 

Describe the context of this project and its neighbourhood and people?

 

Holdron’s Green has been created in a formerly empty yard outside of the Copeland Gallery in the core of the Copeland Park and Bussey Building complex. This quarter of Peckham serves as the area’s social and cultural heart with a diverse community of artists, small businesses, creative practices, bars, and restaurants. The Bussey Building itself is home to fitness studios, a nightclub, community theatre, faith groups, and even a rooftop cinema. 

 

The site hosts the neighbourhood’s festival — Peckham Festival — a four-day celebration of creativity, culture and food held at multiple sites across the area with one single aim: to celebrate Peckham and promote SE15 as a hub of cultural importance. The festival is supported by Southwark Council and local businesses, as well as the volunteering work of local groups. 

 

Located minutes from Peckham Rye station, Copeland Park, the Bussey Building and their assorted tenants and visitors are crucial to the area’s cultural diversity and vitality. The uniqueness of this quarter stems from its mix of uses and the varied users/people that meet in one place — in one of London’s most authentic and culturally diverse neighbourhoods.

 

Tell us what you did and how the project, event or installation enlivened the place in a creative way?

 

Campbell Cadey have turned an empty, unloved space into a new, green, pocket-park for this bustling creative community in the heart of Peckham, through the upcycling of onsite waste materials. 

 

The intention of the design is to create a space where the community could gather to escape, to immerse themselves in nature in the centre of a very urban environment. The launch of the space coincided with the 2022 Peckham Festival, with Holdron’s Green to remain in situ as a legacy project for the benefit of the neighbourhood.

 

Our aims for the space, and the materials available, leant themselves to creation of a modular system of movable structures that can be repositioned and reorganised to allow the flexibility required of the space by the adjacent gallery.

 

Copeland Park, as landlords, are committed to sustainability and reuse. On-site warehousing included a large store full of unused materials and furniture that the designers were given access to. The only new elements of the design are the fixings, castors, and paint. 

 

To unite the space, Campbell Cadey worked with specialist colour consultant Studio Justine Fox. The chosen palette works with the planting scheme to create a nurturing, but vibrant space, with colours used to vary character. All paint was donated as sponsorship by sustainable paint manufacturers Graphenstone. 

 

The design aims to provide different levels of privacy through the heights of structures and density of planting, all the while adding to the sensory experience for all through a rich planting palette.

 

How did you engage the community?

 

Over the course of two weeks, during which time a variety of workshops took place, we observed patterns of behaviour change towards the communal spaces of Copeland Park. Tenants and festival sponsors were invited to volunteer in the construction of the garden, by painting the planters and with planting itself. Local children, whether residents of nearby buildings or those whose parents are tenants, were also encouraged to be part of the finalization of the garden. 

 

Via such community engagement activities, we found that physical, tangible activities — particularly when combined with nature — are valuable tools to enable the mixing of different groups of people, be they separated by age, culture or interest, in what could become a common place for them all.

 

The strategic location of Holdron’s Green has also been beneficial for both the garden itself and the bars and restaurants already existing in the site. Since the festival, we have observed how the creation of these new green pockets has opened the previously uninviting courtyard for use by the clients of the surrounding bars and food trucks, offering them a new outdoor extension where they can relax while eating or having a drink. 

 

During the festival, the space was host to several workshops, and in the months since has continued to be utilised for different organised events, as well as the informal uses outlined above. The design of the space and the movable planters enable straightforward reconfiguration, which has been a key driver of Holdron’s Green’s Success.

 

Did the project make a positive social and environmental contribution?

 

Evaluation data shows that the intervention is welcoming for all tenants of Copeland Park and the Bussey Building. It is also open to — and used by — people that come and visit the site when the flea market or such other event takes place. Furthermore, the site’s location on a cut-through from a residential neighbourhood into the heart of Peckham Rye means it acts as an ideal resting point for those simply passing by Copeland Yard, or who live in the local area. 

 

The garden is in use mainly during the day, throughout all seasons. We observed that, particularly during lunchtime, people populate the garden as it has become an oasis-like space to have a break from work, meet and socialize with colleagues and the wider community. Surrounded by the brick and concrete of the urban realm, the garden offers users the possibility to connect with nature and relax during these worktime breaks. Though not quantifiable on this site, this change in behaviour witnesses the way that by adding nature and creating small green nooks we can increase and improve people’s mental wellbeing.

 

Holdron’s Green has already positively contributed to the environment of Copeland Park and continues to do so. The selection of the planting palette has been pivotal to this success. The incorporation of wildflower meadows, ornamental grasses, low growing flowers and trees has quickly added year-round interest and biodiversity to the site, while helping to mitigate the ‘heat island effect’ caused by large areas of hard standing.