Our first beds were installed beside the cafe near the Bandstand (hence our organisation’s name) by Victor Chin-Kit, Parks Manager for the Common, as he wanted to encourage some vegetable growing in Clapham.
Victor with the original BBA team
The following year (2013), Fiona Law, Diana Linskey and a few other a gardening enthusiasts interested in sustainability and food growing set up Bandstand Beds Association (BBA). Their aim was to provide an opportunity for people in the local community to discover the joys and benefits of growing their own food, particularly those with no outside space at home.
Keen to support food growing on Clapham Common the London Borough of Lambeth (LBL) gave BBA an opportunity to take on some unloved and neglected space in front of the toilet block, opposite the children’s playground on Windmill Drive.
BBA’s second growing space
Now with two gardening areas on the Common, during the summer of 2013 Fiona and Diana, along with friends from Incredible Edible Lambeth and South London Master Gardeners, ran a Chelsea Fringe project: The Squash & Bean Swap. They held seed and plant exchange events and picnics on the Common, and grew a wide variety of pumpkins, squash and legumes in the two growing spaces.
Seed swap & picnic 2013
With help from Victor they also organised compost giveaways, using rotted organic material from the green waste site (‘the dump’) on Windmill Drive, Clapham Common.
Compost giveaway
Fiona decided to stand down from BBA in 2014 and David Dandridge was elected Chair at the February AGM.
Most of the other large green spaces in Lambeth already had community gardening hubs in one form or another – Brockwell Community Greenhouses, Myatts Fields Park, and Streatham Common Rookery. Clapham had no obvious place for such community growing but it did have keen gardeners wanting to have a go and change this, and David and Diana were keen to see Bandstand Beds grow.
In the spring of 2014, permanent crops of blackcurrants, gooseberries, and rhubarb were planted at the beds opposite the playground (now called our Fruit Beds) and our flourishing growing spaces began to attract more BBA members.
Keen to support our group’s enthusiasm, Lambeth came up with an offer for a new area for food growing. We were invited to transform part of the Common’s green waste site, know locally as ‘the dump’
The dump
Double gates onto Windmill Drive
At the start of 2015, we worked with LBL to bring part of ‘the dump’ back into community use. With in-kind support from LBL, money from the Common’s levy on events, plus grant funding from Awards for All, Love Your Roots, and Capital Clean Up, we were able to install a polytunnel, raised beds and a water supply to create a food-growing corner on the former piece of waste land.
In October 2015, we held our annual feast and opening of our new community garden on Windmill Drive, Clapham Common – watch video.
The new community garden attracted a great deal of interest from local residents keen to get involved in local food growing. When we began work to reclaim part of ‘the dump’ we had just 10 members and at the end of our first proper growing season a year later, in 2016, this had risen to more than 80.
With help from CCMAC we secured some funding from the event’s levy to install pathways and we thought our community garden was complete, but then Lambeth Council had a suggestion. Acknowledging the success of our food growing project, they asked if we would like to extend the garden. What could we say?
Proposed garden extension
Once Lambeth Council had levelled the ground, the first thing to be placed on the extended garden was a new shipping container funded by This is Clapham. This has been converted into an onsite kitchen facility which is used to prepare food for our picnics and cook-ups.
With funding from Tesco Bags of Help we have been able to buy raised beds and other essential equipment. And throughout the summer of 2017 we ran a Spacehive crowdfunding campaign to raise over £5000 to install pathways in the new part of the garden, making our growing space accessible to everyone.
But with so many visitors to the garden, we soon realised there was still an essential item missing. So in 2019 we installed even more pathway and a disabled composting toilet, made possible with a grant from the National Lottery Community Fund.
Aerial view of our community garden taken in 2017
In 2021, BBA became a registered charity (1193238). It was also the year we realised a long-held aim, to build composting bays to recycle all of our green waste from the garden. Click for more information.
In the time we’ve had our community garden on Clapham Common, the effects of climate change have become a real challenge, affecting our crops, our volunteers and visitors. The area used for gardening activities, workshops and to sit and socalise, offered no shade and in 2024 we realised we needed to do something to help with this problem,
At the end of our growing season in 2025, we installed a frame for climbing plants, such as grape vines. In time, the vegetation growing over this structure will provide protection from the sun – an area of shade to sit, relax and enjoy our garden in the hot summer months. This will be especially beneficial for the activities and workshops we run with older people and children. The project was made possible by The National Lottery Community Fund and donations from visitors to our produce stall on Saturday mornings.
Our volunteer-led organisation has achieved huge amount since its humble beginnings in 2012 with a few raised beds beside the café by the Bandstand. Now, our garden is wonderful community asset where people can grow food, connect with nature and one another.
Towards the end of 2025, BBA received the King’s Award for Voluntary Service. A huge accolade and recognition of the hard work and dedication of our members, past and present, who have put so much of their time into creating our amazing community space on Clapham Common.
If you would like to find out more about getting involved with our volunteer-led organisation and BBA membership, click on this link.