Redbrick Estate Communal Spaces
Your Bunhill ward councillors, Cllr Troy Gallagher, Cllr Phil Graham and Cllr Valerie Bossman-Quarshie, have teamed up with environmental charity Groundwork London to improve three green spaces on the Redbrick Estate.
Groundwork London is an environmental regeneration charity with a clear mission: uniting communities and enhancing the urban landscape. Their focus lies in cultivating green spaces throughout London. With a commitment to championing local communities, their aim is to facilitate the restoration of nature in a manner that mitigates inequality, promoting improved livelihoods and well-being for all. They strive to facilitate the restoration of nature in a manner that mitigates inequality, promoting improved livelihoods and well-being for all.
We know how important these spaces are in allowing residents to connect with nature, come together with their community, and boost their mental wellbeing, so we would like to hear your views. This is an opportunity for you to be actively involved in shaping the communal spaces where you live. The project will be fully funded via Thriving Neighbourhoods and Community Infrastructure Levy funding.
We are excited to hear your ideas on how you would like to develop the three spaces. We have planned a series of workshops, so please check 'The next step' section for more details.
Three Greenspaces at Redbrick Estate:
The Butterfly Garden 
The Wildlife Sanctuary Garden
Wildflower Meadow Garden Children's Natural Playground
The purpose of this work is to give you and your family places on the estate where you can relax, socialise, and play. Green spaces near to where you live are great for your mental and physical health, as well as the local wildlife. These improvement works will make the estate a better place to live with better access to play equipment for children, more opportunities for experiencing nature, and an overall boost to the sense of community.
It is our policy that communal green spaces on housing estates are accessible to residents, so eventually the spaces on your estate will be open during the day and locked in the evening.
Islington Council will take on the function of opening and closing the Butterfly Garden, the Wildflower Meadow Garden and the Wildlife Sanctuary Garden after the work is completed.
We know that there are some people on the estate who are concerned about potential anti-social behaviour occurring in these spaces after we improve them and make them more welcoming. We want to reassure you that your feelings of safety where you live are very important to us. We will conduct a review after six months to assess how well the new process for opening and closing the spaces is working.
Whilst the communal areas on your estate are always most likely to be used by the people who live there, access will not be exclusive. Other local people will be welcome to use the facilities appropriately and respectfully.
If anyone does behave inappropriately on your estate, you can get in touch with our anti-social behaviour team: www.islington.gov.uk/ASB
Developing Design
A consultation on improvements to the three communal spaces ran from 18 September 2023 and ended on 16 October 2023. Thank you for taking the time to give us your thoughts and ideas on the space, which the council has carefully considered.
We are now in a different period of engagement, with the help of Groundwork UK.
We would like to thank you for your patience and understanding while we reviewed the engagement so far. We have been working with Groundwork to ensure the ideas for the space incorporate as many ideas from residents as possible. The focus is very much on making sure your green spaces are designed by you and include the ideas that are important to you.
We know that there are a lot of different opinions about this project, so we are really keen to hear from as many people as possible – including those people who don’t always choose to share their feelings about projects like this. Groundwork’s engagement work so far has included knocking on doors on the estate to have conversations with residents, running workshops, a community engagement day, a walk-and-talk session around the three greenspaces, family-friendly activities, ongoing conversations with residents via telephone and email, digital surveys and digital engagement tools.
We are keen to reach out to people that haven’t yet participated in the discussion. This is your opportunity to let us know your ideas on how you would like the three communal spaces to look.
Take two minutes to fill out this quick survey
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/RedbrickGreenSpaces
Your feedback so far
Groundwork have already received loads of feedback from estate residents. Some of the common themes raised:
- An element of biodiversity and opportunity for learning about nature (particularly, but not exclusively, for children). For example, a sign showing the lifecycle of a butterfly
- A space for nature to thrive but in a managed way
- Play equipment for under 5’s children with special educational needs in the Wildflower Meadow.
- Restoring the Wildflower Meadow
- Locking of the spaces at night times
- Improved sight lines to discourage any potential anti-social behaviour and managing potential anti-social behaviour when the spaces are opened
- No seating or opportunity to gather in the Butterfly Garden, limited pathways
The next steps
We will then invite you to two workshops to start to develop the ideas of the spaces on a map. Please click this link to view a preliminary sketch design for each space with analysis of improvement ideas in each space.
- Co-design session 1: Wildflower Meadow Garden & Play Space (Thursday 13 February between 5pm – 6.30pm at the Vibast Centre)
- Co-design session 2: Butterfly Garden and Sanctuary Garden (Thursday 27 February between 5pm – 6.30pm at the Vibast Centre)
The workshop sessions are only to discuss design ideas on the spaces.
Following the completion of the workshop, the team will produce designs based on the feedback received. We will then hold two more sessions to further develop the concept designs.
