In 1816 an Irish family owned a farm estate with a Windmill, a house and a lovely garden. John Ashby was a rare plants enthusiast and member of the Royal Botanical Society

In 1943 the windmill and garden were protected as Open Space and in 1957 all was bought by the London County Council. On another part of the same estate the Brixton Waterworks had been built. The workers dug allotment plots and grew their vegetables, they also played cricket and football on the sports ground next to the allotments.

With the privatisation of the utility companies the waterworks lost the protection of local government. First they were owned by Thames Water/RWE, and since 2006 by Macquarie Bank an Australian banking consortium.

In 2005 and 2007 the plan had been was to sell off the allotments to Lambeth Council to cover the allotments in a plastic material called a MUGA and to build an Academy School.

THE FUTURE: The site remains under constant threat from redevelopment it could be lost at any time. We are woking hard to safeguard it for future genenerations to enjoy by making it relevent to the locality.

You can help by being vigilent and ensuring the open space protection under the untiary development plan is not eroded. It should also be made clear to Thames Water that they will never get the right to build on the allotments because in Lambeth we need our open land to be the green lungs in London and to help to improve air quality and health, as well as for the animals and birds that live here.