Bankside Open Spaces Trust Chair Tim Wood accepts the award.

Our plans for Marlborough Sports Garden have won an award at The Festival of Place – an annual event focused on creating and working on public spaces. Each year the festival holds The Pineapples, awards that celebrate the very best in placemaking, and we are delighted that our Marlborough plans came top in the Future Place category.

This category recognises a masterplan, planning application, action plan or design proposal for a place. Our plans for the garden were shaped in consultation with the community by architects Cullinan Studio and have now been submitted for planning permission – we hope to start work on the new building over the next couple of years.

Developing Marlborough Sports Garden

Marlborough Sports Garden is a unique place in the area – a large sports facility that’s free to access and which offers a wide range of sports activities and events at low cost, or for free. Within walking distance are eight primary schools – so our aim for the garden is to create an environment where children and young people can find it easier to eat well, exercise more, develop a love for and proficiency in many sports, and establish healthy habits for life.

We are already working on lots of activities to help do this on site, but we know that a building will enable us to do so much more with our community – with indoor spaces we can offer a wider range of sports activities, and with proper loos and a café visiting becomes more comfortable for sports participants and spectators alike. We can also host workshops to share healthy cooking skills.

Sports facilities open to all

The new building will be accessible, and we are focusing on developing our sports activities for SEND children and young people and adults with disabilities, older people and those living with chronic conditions.

Added to these community benefits are environmental concerns – Bankside Open Spaces Trust and the design team are united in their ambition to make the building as carbon neutral as possible, from the materials used to the operation of the café and sports activities.

The plans also include more greenery to create a more welcoming entrance – so everyone feels they can spend time at the site and get involved too.

In an area with high rates of obesity, poverty and where many live in overcrowded housing with little to no outdoor space, we hope Marlborough Sports Garden will be a hub for community participation in sport. This award is a stamp of approval for the plans, we hope the community continues to support the development of the site so we can all enjoy this award-winning space long into the future.

Also involved in the design of this site are: Engenuiti, Turkington Martin, Bristow Consulting and Cundall.