Nina Pope and Karen Guthrie
WHAT WILL THE HARVEST BE?

Abbey Gardens, adjacent to the new DLR station at Abbey Road, West Ham.

Artists Nina Pope and Karen Guthrie (somewhere.org.uk) have been commissioned to develop designs for a public & community garden at Abbey Gardens, a protected site adjacent to Bakers Row in East London, not far from the 2012 Olympic Village. The site contains the remains of a 14th century Cistercian Abbey (St. Mary Stratford Langthorne, Essex) and will be adjacent to the new DLR station at Abbey Road, part of the Stratford International Extension, opening in 2010. The design proposals have been commissioned by London Borough of Newham in partnership with the Docklands Light Railway.

Nina and Karen’s proposals for the garden cover three years of development (2008-2010) and relate back to its Cistercian origins when the monks used the land as a site of great productivity. The local Newham area – in a state of immanent change and growth – provides an inspiring context, bringing in new transport links, new residents and commuters, and in time the Olympic visitors and competitors. Historically this echoes the hub of travellers, commerce, debate and food production that the medieval Cistercian Abbey, once sited at the heart of a much larger garden, would have been. Later influences such as wartime ‘Dig for Victory’ allotments and the early 20th century Newham agricultural ‘squatters’, the Plaistow Landgrabbers have inspired their proposals. The designs have been developed in consultation with residents in Newham, and the artists have worked in close collaboration with the Friends of Abbey Gardens. This project, like other important and memorable gardens, will articulate the site’s histories and offer scope for dynamic change brought about by both people and nature. ‘What Will The Harvest Be’ brings together the folk-aesthetic inventiveness of Britain’s amateur allotment-style gardens with historic site references, cutting-edge green technologies and the opulence of the classic English ‘civic park’ at its heyday. The artists’ ambition is to create a garden that is innovative and significant both socially and horticulturally.

For more detailed information about the project click here