£70,000 funding for Evelyn to become Lewisham's first Garden Ward

The National Trust, Lewisham Council and community partners are working with residents to open up green spaces and increase their use. This project is part of the wider ‘Greening Evelyn’ vision to create Lewisham’s first Garden Ward for the benefit of local people, nature and the environment.

A new £40,000 grant has been secured from the Mayor of London’s Green and Resilient Spaces Fund (GRSF) to help increase residents’ access to green spaces in Lewisham’s Evelyn ward. This is on top of £30,000 of NCIL funding for this project, an innovative grants programme funded by the Section 75 developers’ tax with priorities chosen directly by residents. The total £70,000 funding for this project is part of the wider ‘Greening Evelyn’ vision to create Lewisham’s first Garden Ward for the benefit of local people, nature and the environment.

‘Greening Evelyn’ has been developed from community-led research carried out by WonKy Architecture for the National Trust and local partners. Its ambition is to create a garden network of biodiverse and climate resilient green spaces for everyone to enjoy in the long term. It will do this by working with the community to create new spaces, while also making existing ones greener and more accessible.

The Mayor of London’s GRSF Development Grant has been secured by the National Trust supported by Lewisham Council, Lewisham Homes, DeptfordFolk and Street Trees for Living. Working with local residents, this new funding will help develop designs to improve green space in the Sayes Court and Prince Street area of the ward. A community consultation carried out in 2022 identified a number of under-utilised fenced green spaces within these areas which the community wanted to revive for growing and as play spaces and community gardens. Consultation with residents indicated that access to high-quality green spaces is important for health and wellbeing.

Cllr Louise Krupski, Cabinet Member for Environment and Climate at Lewisham Council said:
“This is such an exciting project for Evelyn ward, working with our partners and residents to open up our green spaces and increase their use. Helping people connect with nature is so important for people’s health and wellbeing. I’d like to thank our partners for their hard work in bidding for and achieving funding from the Mayor of London. NCIL funding is designed to mitigate the effects of development and I can’t think of a better way to spend this money which was applied for by DeptfordFolk and the National Trust and granted by the Council.”

Jim Foy, the National Trust’s Assistant Director of Operations for London and the South East said:
“We are delighted that Greening Evelyn has received this additional funding from the Mayor of London’s Green and Resilient Spaces fund. We look forward to working with residents to bring about a real change in people’s access to nature and green spaces in their neighbourhood, an exciting prospect.”

Shirley Rodrigues,, London Deputy Mayor for Environment and Energy said:
“Everyone deserves the chance to enjoy nature in their community and Greening Evelyn is a great example of this. The Mayor’s Green and Resilient Space Fund is making a big difference to communities across the capital, and Lewisham residents will hugely benefit from new and improved green spaces and play areas.

“Not only is providing access to green spaces vital for health and wellbeing, but it also helps us to reduce our climate impact, clean up our air and deliver a greener, healthier and fairer city for all.”