Hackney mental health charity wins award for transforming wasteland into a green oasis

A mental health charity has won an award for a horticultural project.

Core Arts have won a City of London award for a horticultural project - Credit: Archant

Charity Core Arts, of St Barnabas Terrace, Homerton were given the award by City of London charity City Bridge at The Barbican in Silk Street last Thursday.

They won the Reclaiming and Developing Wasteland category for their Greening the Grey project, which has been seeking to develop creative and functional uses for vacant land since 2003.

As part of this project, 150 people spent three years transforming a brownfield site opposite Canning Town DLR station into a community space featuring a garden, a large pond and commercial vegetable plots.

Deputy director Giuliana Molinari, said: “We were very excited to win this award and help transform wasteland into productive community growing spaces. Greening the Grey is an exciting initiative as it connects the whole community from developers to disabled people and turns derelict land into something valuable which benefits everyone.”

Core Arts, which was set up in Hackney in 1992, helps provide people with severe mental health issues to access to environments where they can express themselves and participate in creative projects.