Plot 9 Maze Hill

What is Plot 9 Maze Hill?

Plot 9 is a very unusual allotment in Greenwich, south-east London that, after being neglected, heavily polluted and abandoned for 5+ years, has been transformed by me (Andy), with a little help from my friends, into a community gathering and events space.

The plot is at the eastern end of a thin strip of railway-adjacent allotments and has its own entance off Restell Close (location & travel info). The plot doesn’t have regular opening hours but feel free to drop in if you’re passing (and the gate is open), attend a programmed event or sign-up for listings and news or contact me to arrange a visit.

Backstory…

I took on the plot as a regular allotment in 2018 but had a strong desire to build a community space as a gift to London (my home for over 20 years) and to exercise my wild creative ideas away from the constraints and dynamics of the commercial world. After a 20+ year career as a co-founder of a company specialising in building virtual worlds, I was excited to get back to my rural Yorkshire roots and build something in the real one…

The land came to my custodianship suddenly and unexpectly and offered me a unique opportunity to create something for the community of real and lasting value, in a city I felt needed it now more than ever.

The project was started without persmission but I’m happy to say that Greenwich Council are now onboard, supporting it with ward funding, visits from the local councillors, financial backing of a play and a 9-month weekly women’s circle (ongoing) and (in July 2025) a 10m extension to the plot for a new open parachute-covered space.

Left: Day 1, May 2018, half the plot covered in brambles. Right: Summer 2023, The Dodeca-Den on the left.

A rare space…

The plot has very low ground rent, is long-term secure (can’t be developed) and isn’t owned by me, which means no matter what happens I (or anyone that takes it over) can’t ever sell out. These factors shield it from the insecurities and struggles that so many other creative and community spaces in London have suffered or sadly succumbed to.

Mission

Plot 9’s mission is to create a stunningly beautiful and highly-functional space in nature available to use at low (or no!) cost for creative, therapeutic and community-building events.

I hope to bring some of the warmth of my home county of Yorkshire to city life, along with generousity, flexibility and hopefully joy to all who lead or attend events here.

The plot aspires 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, bridging community, always looking for new ways to reach people our outside 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 our beautiful resident foxes.

Plot 9 is here to serve the community on land owned by the community. It is a place to gather, heal, create, learn and connect. A third place. A playground for my imagination…. and a glimpse of The More Beautiful World our Hearts Know is Possible.

Plot 9 is about long-term community-building. Please join our mailing list or Whatsapp Community if you’d like to get involved or stay infomed of events.

How is it funded?

I funded the first few years of development myself but am now happy to say the project is finacially self-sustaining. Anyone wanting to use the plot, does so by donation. All donations go to funding the maintenance and future development of the plot. As of October 2025, Plot 9 has been established as a Community Interest Company – Plot 9 CIC.

I happily devote my time to the project without financial reward. But the rewards are many – the joy of building the-community-space-of-my-dreams in my neighbourhood and meeting an amazing and growing community of people whilst participating in countless beautiful gatherings and practises.

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…

The Plot 9 project 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 now feel closer to the weather, the seasons, the local wildlife, my neighbours and wider community, the ebbs and flows of nature and the rhythms of the street, closer than I’ve felt in the city before.

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 almost all 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 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 that 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. Imagine a world where these spaces were commonplace…

The long-term trend of increased atomisation of society, isolation and loneliness is wreaking havoc on the mental health of us social animals. I believe fully that only the richness of real (offline) local community can fill the hole inside many of us and I have felt very deeply. 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 project is 2 years in and a small volunteer crew assembled. If you’d like to get involved then I’d love to hear from you. Get in touch if you’re:

• looking for a space to host your project or event – more info here
• want to lend a hand in crafting the space and nurturing the plants
• an artist who would like to create something site-specific or have a piece they would like to loan or denote to the space
• have ideas about funding available for the project so we can accelerate the devopment of the space and provide as many low or no-cost events to the community

If you would just like keep in touch with events and volunteering opportunities then please the mailing list and/or Whatsapp Community here.

Gallery

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@Plot9MazeHill