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The Sayes Court Project, Deptford
A community-led landscape project is seeking to have an impact on a new housing development in the heart of Deptford.
At 40 acres, Convoys Wharf in Deptford is one of the largest development sites in Central London. Having gained planning consent in 2014 (from the then Mayor of London, Boris Johnson), the overall masterplan of 3,500 flats is fairly typical of such a site in which just 500 homes are defined as are affordable. However, the community-led landscape project at its heart is unique and offers an approach which other communities could build upon.
The Sayes Court Project developed from a community group, which came together in 2011 to challenge the proposed development at Convoys Wharf. There were many concerns, including the scheme’s density, lack of affordable homes and opportunities for local people, as well as its failure to address the global significance of the site’s history. For 350 years it was home to one of the primary naval dockyards in the country (and later the Empire) and includes the site of the famous garden which John Evelyn established in 1652. The garden itself was lost beneath concrete but has never been built upon. There was a clear opportunity for a new garden within the future development, which could play a part in addressing some of the problems in the scheme.
Further research into Sayes Court’s history and significance was supported by the Gardens Trust and National Trust. We looked at Evelyn’s work on sustainable forestry and urban tree planting as well as the National Trust’s campaigns for public access to open space in cities and the wider site’s role in the global movement of plants and peoples. Sayes Court is part of the National Trust’s origin story.1 Evelyn’s descendant had created a public park on the site of the garden in 1870, and contacted Octavia Hill for support in his attempt to protect it for the public in perpetuity; this highlighted the need for a body capable of holding such assets for the public, and the National Trust was born a few years later. The contemporary resonance of these histories formed the basis for the development of the project which was to create a centre of urban landscape and horticulture. By 2015 the community had successfully campaigned for the project to be included in the development of a new 1ha garden, together with a training, educational and cultural centre. The landscape will be designed and managed by the community as part of a programme of delivering professional qualifications and it will draw on the place’s heritage of landscape innovation to investigate contemporary urban issues.
The subsequent stages have been slow. The Convoys development officially commenced in 2022, which has raised hopes that the Sayes Court Project may soon have a start date. In the meantime, the project has submitted a business plan, as required by the Section 106 Agreement, which must be approved as financially viable by the developer and Lewisham Council before a lease for the land and centre (at peppercorn rent) can be entered into. With the council’s approval now secured, there is optimism that the build won’t be far behind.
This is a long-term project. Even if construction works pick up pace, it is still anticipated that it will be several years before the developer completes the centre and releases the land for the garden. The Sayes Court Project will be working during this time to secure the necessary funding to match the developer’s contribution. It also aims to develop a programme on site. The project has put forward several proposals for ‘meanwhile’ use since 2015, but the site has remained unoccupied. It is now hoped that the combination of an approved business plan and increased activity on site will at last make this possible.
Meanwhile use has always been important to the development of Sayes Court. The completed business plan sets out an overall financial and operational structure, but to be a success the project needs to become a living part of the many different communities in the area. An initial programme has been co-designed by the Sayes Court Project, in collaboration with nine other local community organisations, with support from Torange Khonsari of the practice Public Works and GLA Regeneration. This approach is centred on the core vision for the Sayes Court Project, but with space for experiment and adaptability.
A great deal has changed in Deptford and the wider world since the project was first conceived. The long-term success of this as a community endeavour depends on nurturing resilience to such changes over time, balancing clarity of purpose with the energies of a broad base of stakeholders.
None of this has been smooth or easy. Besides often tense negotiations with the site’s developer, this is taking place in a time of widespread social conflict, extreme economic inequity and environmental crisis. Looking towards the broader question of what this means to any future large-scale house building programme, community-led landscapes could be a starting-point towards healing some of these wounds. Landscape design which prioritises a wide range of accessibility, diverse uses and interpretations can help to lower the barriers to participation in these shared spaces.
In a development at the scale and cost of Convoys Wharf, the public realm is the only part of this new neighbourhood that the majority of existing local communities will experience. Even in schemes more focused on affordable housing, these shared areas are where the success or failure of their essential social functions will be played out. How will these neighbourhoods develop their distinct identities, and integrate with the wider area? A first step is to openly face the potentials for tension and conflict. These are not things that landscape practitioners should shy away from. Communities of difference need spaces to meet, opportunities to strengthen social resilience through negotiating space safely. Polarisation can be broken down through shared endeavour, building solidarity between different interests. These are things that community-led landscapes can support. This effect has been seen at all scales, from the EU-funded community gardens supporting the peace process in Belfast, to the Cordillera del Condor³ conservation zone, on the mountain borders between Ecuador and Peru. Spaces are needed which are accessible, which can be programmed for multiple overlapping uses, people (and other creatures) and processes. The management of these spaces is also an opportunity. We are rightly wary of burdening already stretched communities with additional unpaid labour. However, my experience over many years of working with community organisations in Deptford has shown me just how much time, skill and energy people are willing to contribute to their communities. Where landscape management budgets are limited, there is without doubt space for local volunteers to make up shortfalls. With one important stipulation, however: that this work is valued, and that contributors are treated with respect. The concept of ‘ownership’ is often used glibly in relation to landscape. In a culture and economy where land ownership is such a potent determinant of power, such notional ‘ownership’ is rarely accorded equal status.
At the Sayes Court Project, there will be a community-led and managed landscape running through the core of a large mixed-use residential development. This means that it will be members of the community – be they paid staff, trainees or volunteers – who make key decisions about its future priorities. Sayes Court is a site with an exceptional history, and Convoys Wharf is a development which has presented exceptional challenges. However, this is a model that could be extended elsewhere. A landscape-first approach could start early, engaging multiple community stakeholders to identify conflict, building solidarity through shared endeavour and establishing local spatial identities. In the process, the landscape of housing can begin to repair the damage caused by extremes of inequity. Creating new neighbourhoods requires more than homes.
Roo Angell is a landscape architect, campaigner, and lecturer with particular interest in urban spatial equity and practices of care.
