With each passing year Bandstand Beds Association (BBA) goes from strength to strength, and in 2025 we received amazing recognition of our work on Clapham Common. For the third year running we were awarded ‘Outstanding’ in RHS London in Bloom It’s Your Neighbourhood. Then in November, it was announced in The Gazette that BBA had been honoured with the King’s Award for VoluntaryService – the MBE for volunteer groups.
Receiving this award is a huge accolade for BBA, which began with just a few raised beds back in 2012. Now, our volunteer-run organisation manages three growing spaces on the Clapham Common: our original namesake beds next to the café at the Bandstand, fruit beds near the children’s playground, and our community garden which provides a welcoming space for people to grow food, connect with nature and one another.
Gardening activities & workshops
From February through to December 2025 we ran regular gardening sessions each week on the following days:
- Saturdays from 9am-1pm – usually followed by lunch prepared in our field kitchen.
- Mondays 2-4pm – our 55+ group in partnership with Froglife’s Wild Times.
- Wednesdays 5-7pm – with a mediation session at the end (summertime only).
In addition to our regular gardening sessions, we run and host additional workshops and activities with schools and local charities. In 2025, these included:
- The Orchard Project – a winter fruit tree pruning workshop in February.
- Belleville Primary School – as part of an eating locally project, five groups of 30 pupils visited us in March to see how our garden grows.
- Brixton Ultimate – the frisbee team that practises on the Common on Saturday mornings made a return visit for a spot of volunteering in the garden in March. After joining us for lunch they spent the afternoon shifting compost.
- Get Growing – to encourage more families to join our Saturday sessions, in April we began a series of gardening activities for children aged 4-plus.
- Ace of Clubs – for the second year running, a group of BBA volunteers headed along to the homeless charities garden in April to put in a morning’s work prepping and planting ready for the growing season ahead. Later in the year we provided help and support with the garden, and gave them seedlings grown in our polytunnel.
- Summer Garden Party – in June was part of the #GrowUrbanFestival2025, which brought together celebrations of community resilience and ecology across London. The event was supported by Capital Growth who, later in the year, facilitated a Biodiversity at Bandstand Beds workshop. The focus was to survey pollinators and better understand how urban food-growing spaces can support biodiversity.
- KeyRing – provides social care support for vulnerable adults, with regular meetings held at Clapham Library. In June, for the second year running, we welcomed them to spend an afternoon with us. An opportunity for the group to enjoy a walk together across the Common and spend the afternoon socialising in our garden.
- Pickle-perfect Workshop – facilitated in July by BBA member Sarah who shared a family recipe to preserve some of our cucumber harvest. Throughout the summer we also ran pop-up chutney making sessions – a great way to use up a glut of fruit and veg, and to raise money on our produce stall.
- Bandstand Beds Feast – our big annual event held in September. A free harvest celebration with food, fun-filled activities and a fundraising raffle with prizes donated by local businesses. There’s always a great community atmosphere, and this year’s feast was yet another fantastic event!
- Royal Trinity Hospice – a new partnership we began in October, hosting sessions for their Nature Bereavement Group. Our garden provided a safe, outdoor space away from the Hospice, and any emotionally triggering memories it might still present. The sessions were well-attended and enjoyed by RTH clients, and we are already planning more for in the spring of 2026.
- Ready, Steady, Go! – another new connection made during the October school half-term holiday, hosting a free activity with Lambeth’s healthy lifestyle service. A group made up of seven families, including eleven young people, harvested veg from the garden, then prepared and cooked lunch using our onsite field kitchen.
- Clapham Common Fruit Tree Planting – to celebrate National Tree Week. BBA prides itself on having an productive relationship with with Lambeth Council, and we welcomed the opportunity to partner with them and The Orchard Project to plant twelve fruit trees in November. This was a hugely successful and fun event, and the perfect activity to end our year at the garden.
With each passing year at Bandstand Beds there is always a new opportunity or challenge that presents itself. In the time we’ve had our community garden on the Common, the impact of climate change has become more evident, especially in the heat of summer. The area we use for workshops and to socialise offers no shade. To resolve this problem, with money raised from donations and a grant from the National Lottery Community Fund, we have now installed a structure that will serve as climbing frame for plants. In time, this will provide a shaded area in the garden where people can work, sit and relax – particularly beneficial for group activities involving children and vulnerable older people.
With the plant structure up, we will now take on another challenge posed by hotter summers – keeping food cool for our events. Our next big project at the garden will be to install a power supply to run electrical appliances in our kitchen, such as a fridge. This installation of an electricity supply will be our fundraising focus for 2026.
Everything has been achieved by our organisation over the years is thanks to the input of volunteers, dedicated Bandstand Beds members who give their time for free to make our garden and other growing spaces on the Clapham Common such a wonderful asset to the local community. This year, we have had more people join BBA than ever before. Not only has our membership increased, we also now have more people regularly attending gardening sessions and showing solid commitment to help with the running and management of our volunteer-led organisation. Time BBA volunteers spent at the garden during our regular Saturday, Mondays and Wednesday evening sessions during 2025 amounts to around 3600 hours. Add in the time spent watering, along with planning, hosting and running activities for local charities, schools and organisations, and the amount of volunteer hours increases significantly.
Receiving the King’s Awards for Voluntary Service is a huge feather in BBA’s cap and has now set the bar high. Going forward, we will endeavour to continue making Bandstand Beds a welcoming and safe environment, where people from all walks of life can get outdoors, garden, connect with wildlife and nature, and socialise. Long may it continue.
Written by David Dandridge – BBA Chair.
This blog highlights our main achievements in 2025. For more information, photos and updates, follow us on Instagram @ccbandsstandbeds.
To find out more about how to become a BBA volunteer and sign up for membership, click here.
Special thanks to Lambeth Council for the continued help and support they have given BBA since it was set up on Clapham Common in 2013.
