In the far-flung reaches of London Zone 5 lies Hatton Cross, a station most Tube passengers only encounter as the place to change trains in a panic if you realise you’re headed for the wrong Heathrow terminal. I step out from the Underground blinking, onto a network of roaring A roads that criss-cross what was once the English countryside, built to bear the weight of the logistics required for the world’s seventh busiest airport. There are no pedestrians – the only source of sustenance in view is a lonely petrol station on the other side of the dual carriageway. A British Airways administration hub dominates the landscape like an artificial mountain. Grazing in the scrubby field directly in front of it is an incongruous white pony.
Somewhat doubtful, I make my way along the entirely unshaded road in the direction of the location I’ve been given. I’ve been warned, “Google Maps will struggle”. I can see why: this stretch of arterial roadside does not seem like the location for an exciting community growing project, bringing together educational and environmental goals under one glorious interdisciplinary banner.
But lo! On the fringe of a roundabout bearing Heathrow traffic eastward, greenery beckons. Not just greenery but frenetic activity: in the uncompromising sun a dozen or so 11-year-olds in colourful gardening gloves are furiously sifting soil in one of the plant beds. “There are bugs!” a girl exclaims. “Bugs are good,” assures one of the surrounding adults. He explains how worms turn over the soil by eating it and pooing it out, which is crucial to plant health. The children are mesmerised, though possibly because a strange adult has used the word poo.
We are at the somewhat uninspiringly named Faggs Road North Allotment in the west London borough of Hounslow, and the adult in question is Labour councillor Salman Shaheen. He holds the council brief for Environment, Transport and Public Realm, and this garden is his baby. Back in 2021, he was involved in the fightback against the 12th Duke of Northumberland’s plans to bulldoze a strip of allotments that had stood there for over a century in order to build 80 new homes on the edge of the neighbouring Syon Park estate.
The Duke lost, the allotments were saved, and Shaheen was “radicalised”. Having seen the passion urban locals felt for these modest but precious green spaces, especially during the pandemic when time outdoors became so important, he started thinking: how much council land is disused and desolate? And could it be put to better use?
“You sketch it out on the bag of a fag packet and go: yes, I think this will work,” he says. The result is Grow For The Future, a Hounslow initiative to repurpose pockets of council-owned wasteland as community gardens and educational spaces. The site I am at is one of seven across the borough. It runs alongside the busy road, backing onto a street of houses, and once upon a time was did indeed used as allotments. But the land has been derelict for decades. Shaheen shows me some “before” photos: piles of dirty mattresses, building debris, household waste. It was the kind of illicit dump parents warn their kids to avoid.
But in the last year it has been transformed. Down one end are 30 new allotments residents can lease from the council. At the other, the community growing space currently experiencing an invasion of year 7 pupils from the nearby Rivers Academy channelling their inner Alan Titchmarsh. Under the gaze of a supervisor from the gardening social enterprise Cultivate London who embodies the cheerful attitude of a children’s TV presenter (“Yes you CAN have your own tomato plant!”) they are starting a vegetable garden. Little seedlings that will (possibly) become carrots, pumpkins and spring onions are being nestled into the soil with exacting care. When they’re ready, they’ll be harvested by these pupils or other local volunteers and may even become school dinners.
“It’s not just about lovely flowers,” Shaheen tells me, pointing to a bed that has been overtaken by particularly enthusiastic mint which he says he planted himself. “I want these kids to get a sense of where their food comes from.” Right on cue, one boy appears with a handful of mint leaves. “Can I eat these?” he asks. “Well, they’re nicer in tea –” Shaheen begins, but it’s too late, the boy has already popped the raw mint into his mouth and is munching happily.
Hounslow launched Grow For The Future in 2023, with £165,000 of funding for the first two years from the UK Shared Prosperity Fund Levelling Up Agenda. The programme’s ambitions read like a dizzying confluence of council priorities: improve local neighbourhoods, strengthen community cohesion, expand biodiversity, provide free food to residents, enhance local skills, improve climate resilience, reduce social isolation, provide educational opportunities, improve mental health through nature, foster a sense of local pride. Some of those ambitions are being fulfilled before my eyes. The children, for example, are all very proud to be there. They are also emphatic that their mental health is being improved today by getting to skip PE. And the boy who ate the mint has been educated that rosemary is also safe to eat, though possibly not in the quantities he’s consuming.
The initiative has been so popular that Hounslow has launched a sister project, Go Forth and Grow For The Future. This enables residents to take local spaces into their own hands, rather than putting the council in charge. See a scuzzy patch of no-man’s-land and want to make it bloom or grow vegetables? With some exemptions (no one wants locals messing around on contaminated land), the council’s default is to say go for it. Shaheen says he wants people to feel empowered to make the changes they’d like to see in their local area, rather than everything being under top-down control. “It comes from the grassroots,” he says, presumably speaking figuratively.
The scheme even has its own celebrity champion. “It is so simple yet so effective and brings health benefits and joy to everyone involved,” I am told by Jim Carter of Downton Abbey fame. “My fervent hope is that councils across the country get on board and roll out their own schemes along the same lines. It works. Everyone wins. Get on board.”
Carter’s backing isn’t all that surprising – he and his wife Imelda Staunton are patrons of the charity Green Fingers, which creates gardens for children in hospice care and is similarly dedicated to the ethos that nature can boost mental wellbeing. We may need more of it. In June, it was reported that the number of young people referred to mental health services in England had hit one million, almost doubling since 2018-19, with anxiety as the main driver. Shaheen hopes giving Hounslow’s children a chance to go outside and get their hands dirty can be part of the solution, especially for pupils with special educational needs or difficult home lives. This strip of erstwhile wasteland on the edge of the road to Heathrow isn’t just a community garden. It’s an escape.
Back on the gardening frontline, activity shows no signs of slowing. The pupils now have spades almost as big as they are and are wielding them with terrifying enthusiasm. The mint and rosemary aficionado is back with another question. As the planes roar overhead destined for who knows where, he shows the kids’ TV presenter a small ladybird he has picked up. “Can I eat this?” More education needed, perhaps.
[Further reading: The ubiquity of object lessons]
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