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.
