Registered Charity 1078061
OUR STORY
Creating London's largest Millennium Green
In 1990, Kingston Council announced its intention to develop the Tolworth Main Allotment site. Despite initial resistance, Kingston council pressed ahead.
Enter Roy Rathbone, a trustee of The Green to this day, who stood up at the public meeting and galvanised the local community to join forces and fight the development plans in an organised way. The Alexandra Neighbours Association (ANA) was formed with the sole intention of saving the Tolworth Main Allotments and, having engaged a planning consultant, they took their proposals to the Public Planning Enquiry... and won!!!
Public consultation suggested that a woodland garden would be the preferred option but Kingston council had no funds for such a project. The compromise was to divide the site into eight acres of allotments, operated by the council, leaving twelve acres for the ‘garden.’
But how would this project get built? Those same residents formed a registered charity - the Alexandra Millennium Green Trust (AMGT) - and dedicated their time and resources for the next twenty five years to funding, creating, and maintaining the beautiful space we all enjoy today.
The Alexandra Millennium Green wasn’t always the beautifully landscaped area that you enjoy today. Once it was an ugly urban wasteland, earmarked for development.
WATCH THE GREEN BEING BUILT...
AMAZING FACTS...
- The Green took 15 years to build
- Most of the work was done by the Trustees themselves, who hired the heavy machinery required to move the earth
- The AMGT was granted a 999 year lease which is secure unless the trust fails to maintain the green, or in case of national emergency
- The Green has been open to the public 24 hours a day since its opening in December 2002
- It is still maintained today by the original trustees who donate their time, alongside a group of volunteers
- In 2015, the Green won the Best Open Space category in the Kingston In Bloom competition
- There are 80 trees on the green that have been donated by exhibitors at the Hampton Court Flower Show, and local nurseries
- We have 5 types of fruit and nut growing on the Green - see if you can find them!