Cooke
Fawcett

Sunnyside Community Garden

New building for a therapeutic horticulture charity

Location: Archway, London

, UK

Status: Planning consented

Area: 114m² / 1,230ft²

2018-26

Sunnyside Community Gardens, a therapeutic horticulture charity at the top of Hornsey Rise in Islington, is one of the only community gardens in London with no gates and round-the-clock public access. Our new building gives it a permanent home in place of a cramped shipping container. That openness is the garden's strength and its vulnerability: two previous buildings here were lost to arson. The design lets up to twenty-five volunteers garden, cook and eat together year-round, and was approved unanimously by Islington in 2026.

We've pulled the building back from the street corner and shaped it around the garden's existing desire lines, so it settles into the landscape rather than reinforcing the urban edge. A deep porch reconciles welcome and security: a sheltered threshold for washing boots and meeting passers-by by day, sealed by integrated shutters at night. Those shutters and screens are designed to carry planting and community murals, so the volunteers can claim the building over time. The roof pitches south for solar panels and shading, then lifts north into clerestory windows that frame the mature trees. Fabric-first, all-electric and built from brick and metal that resist fire, it is lo-fi enough for a small charity to run and keep for good.