Christ Church Garden is a green oasis off Blackfriars Road, with beds and borders of shrubs and flowers and holly hedging, all under a lush canopy of London plane and lime trees. In summer, the space is busy with local residents, office workers and church visitors, and contributes to the `green chain' of other spaces along the Thames border including Hatfields Green, Coin Street Garden and Waterloo Millennium Green.

A church has stood on the site since 1671, the current building being the third church, dating from 1959. In 1900 the churchyard was formally opened as a public garden, with funding from The Metropolitan Public Gardens Association. It is now officially a park under the management of London Borough of Southwark.

Some important capital works were carried out in the garden in 2000 under the initiative of local residents, church representatives, Southwark Council, the Metropolitan Public Gardens Association and the then Bankside Open Spaces Programme (later to become BOST). The project was designed and implemented by Marcus Beale Architects and Groundwork Southwark.

An active steering group, facilitated by BOST, works with Southwark Council to ensure the park is well cared for. We work to involve local volunteers and community groups in planting and caring for the lovely circular flower bed.

We aim to preserve the peace and sanctity of the green space. As well as undertaking careful planning, events and gardening, this means working with local developers to ensure that any new buildings preserve this special place for all to enjoy.

We are delighted to have recently won Breathing Places funding, which will enable us to choose a design, build partnerships and carry out planting to revitalise the rather sad northern edge of the garden into a new Wildlife Garden Area.  Click on the link below for further information and please do get in touch if you would like to be involved in this exciting project.

> Breathing new life into Christ Church Garden!

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