The Union Street Urban Orchard

Following the London Festival of Architecture and lasting through the autumn, the site of 100 Union Street in SE1 was transformed into an urban orchard and community garden. Designed by Heather Ring of the Wayward Plant Registry for The Architecture Foundation and built with the help of the Bankside Open Spaces Trust, LivingARK and over 100 other helpful volunteers the garden regenerated a disused site in Bankside and created a place for exchange between local residents and visitors.

The Orchard hosted a series of workshops and discussions focusing on biodiversity and urban food growing, alongside film screenings, musical performances, and local community meetings.

The Urban Orchard was also home to the LivingARK, a zero-carbon pod which was inhabited during the period of the project to showcase sustainable ways of living.  The site also hosted The Nest, a pavilion created by the Finnish Institute and a skip turned table tennis table created by Oliver Bishop-Young.

In September the garden was dismantled and all the trees were distributed to local estates and other community gardens to remain as a lasting legacy of the project.

For more information on the detailed activities in the orchard, please visit the orchard website

The Architecture Foundation published a book documenting the project which can be purchased here.

Photos by Mike Massaro