Dalston Roof Park opens
The Dalston Roof Park is "a new green space in an area of very few"
A community rooftop garden opens this week (Tuesday) in Dalston.
Situated on the roof of the historic Print House building in Ashwin Street, Dalston Roof Park will provide residents and visitors to the area with a refuge from the hustle and bustle of E8. It has a licensed bar, a decked area, an inflatable roof and beehives – as well as gardening and event space.
A series of workshops and events are planned for the garden including film screenings, gigs, pop-up restuarants and much more.
Local residents are encouraged to get involved with the management of the garden and help with the cultivation of allotments in growing plants, vegetables and herbs.
This new public space further enhances Dalston’s reputation as one of London’s most dynamic neighbourhoods and is one of many new innovative and sustainable projects to have sprung up in the area over the last year.
Dalston Roof Park has been created by enterprise and training charity Bootstrap Company, which manages workspaces for small, creative and social businesses, local groups and charities. Bootstrap was founded in 1977 and this latest initiative aims to highlight the lack of green spaces in the area and to demonstrate the green potential for urban development. It also emphasises the role the city can play in nurturing and enriching the ecosystem.
The chair of Bootstrap Company, Mary Doyle said: ” The community have become really involved in this project, with schools, local groups and charities coming together to create a green space for the community in the centre of Dalston. Open space in Dalston is only at one twentieth of the level recommended by the National Playing Fields Association. We want to provide an opportunity for the community to come together and engage in growing food, bee keeping and other sustainable projects.
“Dalston Roof Park is part of wider work we are doing to ensure that the regeneration of Dalston is based around micro development – bottom up improvements that involve the local community and have wide ranging positive effects.”