This May, grassroots non-profit, Grow to Know, and the RHS are joining forces to celebrate the community gardens that are created each year to live on following the RHS Chelsea Flower Show with the launch of the inaugural RHS Community Chelsea garden; Life Under the Westway: Maxilla Gardens, located in North Kensington.
Spearheaded by Grow to Know and supported by the Mayor of London and the Westway Trust, Life Under the Westway: Maxilla Gardens, is launching in association with RHS Chelsea Flower Show. The impactful, new garden design is being built for one purpose: to unlock access to green space in the local community, and will be opened to the community in early June.
Located under the Westway, the birthplace of Grow to Know – and just a stone’s throw away from the RHS Chelsea Flower Show showground in the same borough, the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, the garden will create a much needed and valued space for the local community, with the Westway Trust being involved throughout development as custodians of the land. Grow to Know is transforming the existing Maxilla Gardens into a new, revived and accessible space for local residents to visit and enjoy, free of charge.
Inspired by the social effects of life under the Westway in 1970, the garden tells stories of the past and the present, whilst also seeking solutions for continuous and current environmental and social challenges faced in the local area. Innovative design creates an abundance of undulating, meandering and swathing greenery for wildlife, with repurposed materials used to create the pathways and features, inspired by the industrial development of the past.
With the form of a helix threading through the space, the interweaving pathways embed the DNA of the community within and through the garden, further amplifying the rich history of life under the Westway. A space for people and planet, key features include: a green installation ‘the helix’; bespoke furniture as well as a tapestry of planting contributed by Gucci, living on in the community from the set of its Gucci Cruise 2025 Fashion Show held at Tate Modern. The garden is at the crux of community development – poised as the front garden of Dale Youth Boxing Club, Bay20 Community Centre and the incoming Maxilla City.
The design and delivery team is comprised of Grow to Know, Westway Trust, SuDS UK, Cameron, George King Architects and Wylie Wood. Funding from the Mayor of London’s Future Neighbourhoods programme, via Kensington and Chelsea Council, supported the revitalisation.
