The Exchange is a community-owned organisation that draws upon the heritage of Erith’s Old Carnegie Library - a space that was designed and built by local people in 1906 - to inspire new community-led programmes and activities, including art and craft workshops and classes, community-led events, concerts, and performances. SPL was invited to design the garden during the renovation works. Our early involvement allowed us to work sustainably, utilising construction waste materials in the hard landscape.

The site is a complex tapestry of micro-climates and levels. From a sloping front garden on a busy road that is exposed to sun and wind funnelled from the Thames to a woodland-edge rear garden with a steep incline. The masterplan was conceived to pull these diverse elements together so the garden would flow coherently in a way that everyone could access, including wheelchair and pushchair users.

The rear garden is the largest single space with a mature Sycamore and bespoke greenhouse providing focus. A rear boundary of reclaimed corrugated fencing creates a richly patinated backdrop. Open carpets of herringbone brick (that mimic the interior parquet flooring) offer places for people to sit and gather.

The planting palette is a romantic mix of perennials including Trifolium rubens, asters, grasses, bulbs and roses, with vertical accents from Digitalis lutea. These loose, dreamy combinations are anchored by the silver leafed Eleagnus ‘Quicksilver’ and evergreen Osmanthus x burkwoodii, both of which have small, highly scented flowers in season.

The bricks were developed by Local Works Studio following an intensive local resource mapping exercise. LWS identified site waste and Crayford Brick Earth as the materials that were locally plentiful. Clay was ‘won’ from nearby roadworks and the bricks were handmade in community workshops run by LWS. Together with the client, the community, and LWS we worked to ensure as many elements as possible of the hard landscape were reclaimed or made from local waste/found materials including old timber, building rubble, corrugated metal, reclaimed bricks and rescued clay!

SPL also designed a custom greenhouse for the garden inspired by Erith’s travelling library van (the first of its kind, commissioned in the 1930s by Florence Barton-Young - Erith’s Head Librarian for over 20 years). Fabricated by Surrey Ironcraft with the support of Buro Happold, this incredible new piece of glass and metal is supported by concrete-free foundations and is home to a budding pelargonium collection as well as a community propagation space.

This garden is cared for by the brilliant Head Gardener Colin Stewart.