The story so far…
I was lucky (and patient) enough to get an unusual Greenwich Council allotment in May 2018. The plot had been unused for years and was in a polluted and neglected state when I adopted it. During several weeks of clearing brambles, endless buried carpets, 100s of plastic bags and assorted rubbish, it fully hit me what an incredible privilege it was to have a 20 x 10m plot of land near my home. I couldn’t believe my luck. It felt surreal, standing there in a plot of land I could craft and nurture and share to my heart’s desire IN LONDON!
- Venue details for booking the space
- Join the Plot 9 Community (email &/or Whatsapp)
- Follow Plot 9 on Instagram
Left: Day 1, May 2018, half the plot covered in brambles. Right: Summer 2023, The Dodeca-Den on the left.
Rural heart, city mind
I grew up in an old farmhouse on the beautiful North Yorkshire moors but (like the fox) slowly conditioned myself to city (Leeds, Manchester, then London) life over the course of my adulthood. Small balcony and back-yard spaces were the only outdoor places I had to nurture, but I’d filled those and they didn’t provide much scope for grander ideas…
Plot 9 reawoke in me the sheer joy and freedom of working outdoors in messy, organic spaces, growing things, building and breaking things from scavenged raw materials and getting my hands dirty (and sometimes bloody). I began to feel closer to the weather, the seasons, the local wildlife, my neighbours, the ebbs and flows of nature and the rhythms of the street, closer than I’d felt in a city before. I was hooked.
Allotments, a santuary from late-stage capitalism…
City life can take away your agency – most things (especially ‘real-estate’-wise) are incredibly expensive, heavily regulated and primarily commercial. [I ran a production company in Shoreditch ‘Inition’ for 16 years and watched as the area transformed and pushed out all but the most commercially-driven creative organisations and people]. Unlike in rural areas, in London, finding even nooks and crannies for the realisation of non-commercial projects has become increasingly difficult. I’m deeply saddened about how this has chaged London, the place I’ve called home for over 20 years. Plot 9 has given me back agency and hope. I plan to make the most of it by realising its full creative and community-building potential, making a political statement in the process.
Vision
Plot 9 will continue to develop as a space for growing, healing, community-building, therapuetic practices, ritual, nature-connection, crafts and creativity. It aims to be a beacon of imagination and creativity in an otherwise creatively-muted neighbourhood and an increasingly homogenous city.
Plot 9 aims to reach out to a diverse community. We will look for new ways to reach people that our outside of our existing networks and bring people together who might not otherwise meet.
Plot 9 will try to inspire by using up-recycled, skip-salvaged and mudlarked materials wherever possible, to show what’s possible when you collect the things others throw away.
Plot 9 is becoming a haven for wildlife with native flowering plants for bees and other pollinators, a wildlife pond, dead-wood habitats for invertebrates, bird-feeders in winter, nesting boxes and Basil, our beautiful resident fox.
Plot 9 strives to use the precious space we have to provide maximum benefit for the community and for facilitators to deliver their practises.
Plot 9 is about long-term community-building. Please join our mailing list or Whatsapp Community if you’d like to get involved.
Plot 9 is now available to hire (by donation) for events, workshops and gatherings that align with our values.
Andy has funded the project himself so far, but is looking for grants and donations to fund the next phase and secure its long-term future.
Plot 9 Presents… is our firstly monthly community event, co-produced with the lovely Clare Barry from Urban Curiosity. Follow the link for info, (free) tickets and contact us if you’d like to speak or perform.
The pandemic has spotlighted many of the toxicities of city life but also opened the door to a radical reassessment of priorities and habits on a personal and community level. The devastating long term trend of increased atomisation of society, isolation and loneliness is wreaking havoc on the mental health of us social animals. Social media was supposed to be an answer, but overall is only making the problem worse. I believe fully that only the richness of real offline local community can fill the hole inside many of us. So above all, I hope Plot 9 can provide some small tonic in the form of human and nature connectedness, agency and creative expression.
Action
The first stage of the project is already underway and a small crew assembled. If you’d like to get involved then I’d love to hear from you. I’m looking for:
- anyone that wants to use the space for their event – more info here
- people to lend a hand in crafting the space and nurturing the plants
- artists who would like to create something site-specific or have a piece they would like to loan or denote to the space
- facilitators for events (workshops, demos, classes) relating to mind, body, soul and earth
- speakers for our Plot 9 Presents… monthly gathering.
- any local creatives interested in regular social meet-ups on the plot.
If you would just like to be kept in touch with anything going on then please join the mailing list and/or Whatsapp Community here.
