Residents of an estate in Hoxton are furious over their council’s plans to demolish a beloved community garden.
In October 2025, Hackney Council announced it would build 32 homes for social rent in a six-storey tower block on land currently occupied by the St John’s Community Kitchen Garden.
The council has pledged to rebuild the garden elsewhere on the estate, but has not said how long residents will have to wait for the new allotment.
Angela Large, 61, an estate resident of 26 years, said: “We’ve put thousands of hours into our space over the years. It’s now an ecosystem that’s growing. You can’t move it.”
The current 0.25-acre allotment features a mature orchard providing apples, plums, and grapes, alongside 15 vegetable beds and a shelter with seating. The entryway is shaded by two trees that came as saplings from the grave of one resident’s son. While the council has said it will try to transfer some plants to the new space, there is no guarantee these trees will survive the move.
For Large, the situation evokes ‘cognitive dissonance,’ as Hackney Council this month began a campaign that would make it easier for borough residents to build allotments on unused land.
Large said: “We’ve been doing that for the last 16 years! It’s a Green council, and they’re destroying gardens.”
The campaign to save the St John’s garden has included a dedicated social media drive, alongside a series of awareness-raising events and an online petition with 125 signatures.
Hackney Council has not indicated that it will change its plans to move the garden.
The St John’s allotment is freely available to the entire estate. Over the years, residents like former charity worker Stephanie Brisley have become emotionally attached to the space.
Brisley, 49, lives in a high-rise. She said: “This is all there is for me. We’ve got no other green space.”
Brisley continued: “If we lose this, I will actually cry. I don’t think I’m going to take part in the new garden. I just don’t want to start again. They’d have taken away something that I love.”
Rachel Dring is the Capital Growth Coordinator for Sustain, a charity that promotes community gardens in urban spaces across the UK. Sustain helped drive the Right to Grow movement — the same initiative that Hackney Council committed to this month.
Regarding the St John’s dispute, Dring said: “It’s one of those really difficult trade-offs councils have to make.”
Dring admitted that Hackney needs housing, and also green spaces. She said it was ‘unfortunate’ that the dispute in St John’s was happening at the same time as the council’s commitment to its Right to Grow scheme.
Hackney Councillor Alistair Binnie-Lubbock, Cabinet Member for Regeneration, Planning and Inclusive Neighbourhoods, said in a statement: “Hackney is facing an acute housing crisis, and these plans will provide 32 desperately-needed homes, every one available for social rent and ring fenced for local families in critical need.
The statement continued: “This is not a question of homes versus community facilities. As part of the changes, we are proposing a new, larger community garden with improved facilities and 25 new trees.”
Featured image: St John’s Estate residents Xing Wang and Angela Large stand amid the allotment they’ve given their ‘heart and soul’ to since 2010. Credit: Talisker Scott Hunter
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