There’s a new all star cast in the West End, only this one is plants. Surrounded by the Fortune Theatre, a hotel and an office block exists one of London’s earliest children's playgrounds.
Formerly an overflow burial ground for St Martin-in-the-Fields, the Covent Garden Playground began life as a neglected wilderness in the midst and mayhem of 19th century Westminster. It caught the eye of Octavia Hill, the social reformer, early green space activist and a founder of the National Trust who, remarking on its greenery, campaigned for the gates to be opened. In 1877 that became a reality and the space was replanted and opened to the public, quickly becoming a rare garden for children to play.
The space has remained a playground ever since and, until recently, an unassuming municipal space. Two brick ramps and a much older set of stone steps lead into what has latterly been known as Drury Lane Gardens. A pergola and a series of planters that form an octagon around a children's play area.
The planting was tired, the soil compacted and there was not an insect in sight. Behind the playground the sports cage was surrounded by yet more anonymous evergreen shrubs.
When I first visited on a warm July evening, I found Covent Garden resident Max Lacey working with a gardener, attempting to remove one of these inert but firmly rooted shrubs from a brick planter. I was visiting as I had heard that the extraordinary Swedish plantsman, Peter Korn, was in town to plant a new garden in his signature style. A garden in sand.
I’d just missed Korn but got chatting to Lacey, who as it transpired, was the driving force in the project. A trustee of a local educational charity, Lacey explained how he had applied for a grant from the Greening Westminster fund to improve the playground and had commissioned Korn to design the garden. “The method Peter has refined over thirty years not only saved the playground’s hundreds of tonnes of dead soil from needing to be removed, but his nursery Klinta Trädgård’s stunning plants do not need watering either” explained Lacey.
In recent years, Korn’s approach has drawn much attention from gardeners and garden designers alike. The method he has developed is on the face of it simple: grow plants in sand, plant them bare-root at a high density, without any soil or compost, and select plants that thrive in that environment and will compete with one another.
However, after many years of carefully editing his planting palette, refining the type of sand used and learning from hundreds of previous projects, it is somewhat of an artform. Korn is quite unique in his approach, as he grows the majority of the plants himself at his nursery, and also plants each project himself, bringing with him colleagues and enthusiastic volunteers.
The benefits of his method include a massive uptick in biodiversity, really easy maintenance as the sand is low in nutrients and weeds are easy to remove, and resilient plants that require little-to-no watering and will stand up, even thrive, on the assault only children can deliver to a garden.
Korn has introduced more than 6000 plants to Covent Garden Playground, increasing the number of plant species from 10 to 150. Returning last week, the difference is already clear. The garden is alive, even on a cloudy September day, and busy with bees. “Where the children play, the seed bank is disturbed and new plants will grow” Korn explains when I meet him the following day. The planting has been designed with narrow runs, encouraging children to interact with the planting rather than be separated from it, another key ambition of Lacey’s.
Ahead of the Playground's 150th year in 2027, Lacey hopes to have replaced the outdated play equipment with something much more engaging. He has enlisted the support of Penny Wilson of Assemble Play, a playworker who is a passionate advocate for play done properly where children lead the way.
If you are in Covent Garden, visiting the Playground is a must, the planting still in its infancy, it is thrilling to think how it will look this time next year. The Playground is planning autumn play events with Assemble Play, more details can be found through their Instagram @coventgardenplayground
