Our Story
The Winter Garden was opened in March 2019, with the garden designed and planted by the gardener in residence Andrea Ku. It was made possible by the support of Arts Council England, The Trusthouse Charitable Foundation, PH Holt Foundation, The Granada Foundation, The People’s Health Trust, Veolia Environmental Trust, The Elizabeth Rathbone Charitable Trust and the Co-operative Foundation. The Finnis Scott Foundation and the Stanley Smith (UK) Horticultural Trust supported establishing and equipping the garden. What seemed impossible blue-sky thinking, their support made happen – and so our thanks go to all.
What began as a passion project has evolved into something more. We’re proud of where we’ve been and even more excited for what’s ahead.
Two empty houses were in poorer condition than the rest and would have cost us more than we could afford to turn them back into homes again. But we managed to raise enough other kinds of funding to knock the two houses together, put a glass roof on them, and create a beautiful indoor garden and meeting venue – a resource for our community, owned by our community.
The idea is that it brings the guerilla gardening the people here have long done on their streets into an inside gathering space as well. It can be used for workshops, events, artist residencies and social gatherings as well as a shared space for gardening. It has a ‘spare room,’ kitchen and accessible bathroom. The interiors, like the 10 House Project, have also been installed with ceramics by Granby Workshop.
If you don’t know about the Granby Winter Garden, this is the place Granby people decided to make for themselves. It is a kind of culmination of all the community-led activity that got most of the empty homes in Granby Four Streets restored and lived in again.
Booking the Winter Garden
The Winter Garden is a community space – part indoor garden, part arts activity hub – owned and run by and for the local community under the umbrella of the Granby Four Streets Community Land Trust.
We want the space to be open to the public and regularly used for workshops, events, exhibitions, meetings, and more – to serve the neighborhood, the city and beyond, responsive to community need.
You can inquire about booking the Winter Garden using this form. Inquires are received and reviewed by a group of volunteers. We’ll endeavor to get back to each inquiry within two weeks (but often much sooner.)
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Granby Winter Garden will consider all kinds of activities. Priority will be given to groups:
with a connection to the area
without access to other spaces and resources
which offer ideas, actions, practical and creative skills for community benefit
who are voluntary, social enterprises, or creative practitioners, rather than for-profit organisations and businesses
who are creating and sharing common resources
which are public rather than private
All groups will be expected to run their own events with adequate levels of staffing to keep everyone safe, comfortable and feel welcomed, and to do their own set-up and clean-up.
Groups that want to use the Winter Garden regularly will be expected to actively contribute to running the space and helping with practical issues where they can.
Groups are required to review and uphold our policies on Diversity, Inclusion, Equity and Belonging when running events.
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Use of the space is free for local residents and small unfunded voluntary organisations doing non-commercial work – though a voluntary contribution is welcome.
We may ask some groups to pay hire fees depending on their level of funding or the type of activity (commercial or non-commercial, etc.) – so that we can keep the Winter Garden financially sustainable.
Generally, fees are £50+VAT for every four hour session (or £100+VAT for a full daytime programme), but if you’d like to use the space and can’t afford these rates, please get in touch via the booking form anyway as we might be able to accommodate you or support the programme.
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Our meeting room section can seat 15 comfortably in a front-facing configuration while providing wheelchair access to and past each row (20 max if wheelchair access from only front/back).
In the winter months, if you’re looking to use the whole space, the Winter Garden may be slightly colder than normal room temperature as the building is only fully heated in some parts (with radiant heaters in the others.) If a reliable warm room temperature is needed, our partition doors can be closed to form a fully heated meeting room that seats approximately 8.
Approximately 40 standing room capacity throughout the building.
The recognised barriers to accessibility include:
Limited floor space throughout the building
A kitchen without wheelchair accessibility
A second-floor bedroom / BnB area only accessed by a staircase
Very limited or no parking space due to its residential location
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Art
