The SKIP Garden

For 10 years, from 2009 to 2019, The Skip Garden and Kitchen thrived in the middle of the King's Cross development area, a construction site of 67 acres. Among the cranes and the cement mixers, the apartment buildings and the office blocks, our Skip Garden was an urban oasis with a twist: a portable garden that moved to different locations on the King's Cross site as and when land was sold and built on. 

Making the Skip Garden 

True to its name, food was grown out of skips, from apple trees to pumpkins. Temporary polytunnels housed tomatoes, ginger and chillies. It was a garden of a 1000 hands, built and cared for by young people and local business volunteers, together forging a sustainable community. The Skip Garden was largely self-sustaining, thanks to a full complement of organic gardening practices, from composting to companion planting, rain water harvesting to beekeeping.

The Skip Garden Kitchen

All of the food grown was used in the Skip Garden Kitchen, which served vegetarian, seasonal and locally grown food, bringing to life recipes from around the world. The Skip Garden Kitchen was open to the public both during the day and after dark, when open fires softened the glow of modern electrics and scent of spices or pizza from the clay oven drifted over the abundant gardens. The kitchen developed into a teaching space in its own right and provided training and paid opportunities for local young people with an interest in sustainable eating. 

Iterations

The newest iterations of the Skip Garden are our Story Garden, housed behind the British Library in King’s Cross and our new permanent site.