New Practice
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Dean Gardens

 

Dean Gardens

Creative engagement programme helping to shape both the design of a London park and build skills and capacity amongst the local community

Dean Gardens in West Ealing is changing. As part of the West Ealing Liveable Neighbourhoods project, Ealing Council and TfL are undertaking ambitious improvements to the park, encouraging cycling and active travel and making the park a safer, greener, and more enjoyable space to spend time.

Children playing football in a grass area, with a large tree in the foreground.
A pathway through a park, showing a person sitting on a park bench in the right hand of the image.

New Practice have been commissioned by Ealing Council to lead on an exciting engagement programme, helping to shape both the design of the park and build skills and capacity amongst the local community to explore new uses of the space once redevelopment is complete.

 
 
People gathered close to two tent structures talking, with three large flags in the foreground.

Working alongside Kinnear Landscape Architects, this programme has included extensive surveying and observation of how the park is used now and workshops and events with local people to understand how they would like to use the park in the future.

 
 

Planning permission for the improvements to the park was granted in winter 2019. Since then, we have been working with community organisations and local residents to deliver the Dean Gardens Activation Grants project; a programme of up-skilling and support to prototype new ways of using the park. This project includes youth-art activities, a temporary public art installation and a community growing initiative.

An architectural illustration showing a birds eye view of the proposal for the park redevelopment.

This process was launched with the Dean Gardens Mixer, a workshop where local community organisations and residents were invited to join us to shape the direction of the project through collaborative workshop activities. During the mixer, attendees heard from Create London, an organisation that has pioneered new social enterprises, charities and cultural spaces, who shared their experience of delivering work collaboratively with local communities to reimagine the role of greenspace in London.

 
Foreground shows four people inspecting the park, with the park and members of the public in the background.
 
 
Three people reading printed displays showing information on the park redevelopment.
Two adults and a small child practicing Yoga on matts on grass.

The mixer created a brief for the Dean Gardens Activation Grant programme that included the delivery of a range of greenspace tours in North-West London, creative engagement activity for young people in West Ealing and resources to support local people to develop their growing and greening skills.

 

In January 2020, a bus tour was organised by New Practice to bring interested local people to visit several successful examples of community growing projects around North-West London. This tour included a visit to previous work delivered by Kinnear Landscape Architects to draw parallels with the planned improvements for Dean Gardens.

 
A group of people gathered around a table, with a person in the right of the image talking to the group.
 
Young people sat around a table, working with craft materials. In the foreground an adult sits to talk to them.

During this time, we also met with young people engaged through Westside Young People’s Centre - who delivered a range of youth and disability services - to develop a brief for a temporary public art installation at Dean Gardens.

As of March 2020, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on social gathering and day to day operations across the UK demanded a shift in focus for the Dean Gardens Activation Grant programme. A decision was made with Ealing Council to suspend the delivery of any growing and greening workshops until later in 2020 and to instead deliver further planned creative engagement activity for young people through remote and online approaches.

Working with Open Ealing, we commissioned local artist Joel Sydenham to host a suite of online art workshops for young people aged 11-25 across West Ealing. These workshops will support young people to nurture their artistic skills and together create ideas for interventions in their neighbourhoods and contribute to the planned installation for Dean Gardens.

Young people sat around a table, working with craft materials.
A group of people stood in conversation, within a growing space.