London’s mobile Skip Garden was co-constructed by local communities from construction waste. Now named the Story Garden, it has finally found a permanent home.
The Story Garden gives people in and around the busy King’s Cross district of London, UK, a much needed connection with nature.
Known by many as a busy railway terminal, King’s Cross was once a heavily industrialised area. After decades of underinvestment and disrepair, extensive redevelopment began in 2007 to transform it into a thriving commercial, cultural, educational, and residential hub, but community green space was left out of the initial plans.
It was the efforts of Jane Riddiford, the tenacious founder of environmental educational charity Global Generation, which convinced the CEO of the developer, Argent, to allow them to set up a community garden on site. Being very low risk, he agreed, but there was a condition.
The patch of land he offered them was earmarked for development, so after two years the garden would have to go. Rather than lose what they would lovingly be setting up, Global Generation made it mobile.
About Global Generation
“We were interested in King’s Cross because of it being an area of massive change for two of the most deprived areas of London: Somers Town and the Caledonian Ward,” joint-CEO of the charity, Nicole van den Eijnde, tells us. For so long, unemployment and high crime rates held back opportunities for these neighbourhoods, which were also characterised by poor air quality and a lack of access to green spaces.
Global Generation set up in 2004 to support the people who live in areas like this undergoing regeneration but not benefitting from it; in King’s Cross, the reprioritisation of land for business and commuters threatened to further entrench stark socio-economic disparities.
A garden was not the end goal but a tool for engaging local residents – especially young people – in a meaningful project during which they develop a passion for the natural world. “We think of gardens as innovative, creative spaces where people can imagine a different world in the middle of the city,” Nicole says. They also see open gardens as a place “for young people to find their voice and for them to gain the skills and the confidence and the resilience to really create change in the world.”
Gaining Corporate Buy-in
Building the first iteration of the garden was challenging. As a charity with limited capital funding, Global Generation was forced to make use of whatever they could get for free. At least being on a building site meant there was always plenty of construction material going spare.
The circular economy has always been part of our DNA. We work out what can be reused and how we can turn waste into something productive.
Nicole van den Eijnde
They already had the ear of the developer, who encouraged King’s Cross contractors to donate equipment they no longer needed.
“Corporate goals are often where you get the buy-in,” Nicole says. Construction is one of the most polluting sectors, which companies are increasingly trying to offset by committing to sustainability drives, but there’s often heart behind it too.
Nicole’s team invited the heads of the construction companies to a sharing circle to ask why they feel that projects like the proposed garden are important in London.
“It was beautiful,” Nicole recalls. “Each of them shared how they grew up with nature around them.” They expressed an understanding for how their companies could do more to limit climate and damage to nature. “Then, when it came to the actual work, they were invested personally.”
The Skip Garden
There was no shortage of offers.
“About 95% of the materials we used were from the construction site,” Nicole tells us. “We built polytunnels with the old water pipes and made planters with scaffold boards.”
There were a lot of old skips lying about the place too, which they took, lined with soil, and planted with vegetables and herbs. These containers gave the Skip Garden its name and made it suitable for relocation.
The Itinerate Allotment – A Community Effort
In total, the Skip Garden moved four times, always on land set aside by the developer. Each time it was co-designed and co-built with a mix of local people. The first Skip Garden was built with children from the local secondary school, women from a homeless shelter, and the senior management team from The Guardian, which was one of the first companies operating out of King’s Cross at the time.
Engaging local residents takes a focussed effort. “Building trust takes a long time,” Nicole knows from all her years of community and youth work experience.
There’s a big barrier in terms of confidence, language, and wondering, “Is this a type of space for me?”
Nicole van den Eijnde
Charity staff invests much of its time and energy in outreach, engaging different groups in their own environments: at community events, school assemblies, youth organisations, knocking on doors on housing estates, and running sessions at public places like GP surgeries, etc.
The Changing & Challenging Face of King’s Cross
When the garden was due to move, the skips were winched up on cranes. “The contractors building King’s Cross volunteered their time at the weekend to help move it,” recalls local architect Jan Kattein.
Instead of being a hinderance, relocation presented an opportunity for the Skip Garden to evolve, with new features added at the request of the local community.
Site two was nicknamed the Hoop Garden. After two more years it relocated to site three where “Young people wanted to open up a cafe so that the construction workers could have healthier food and not just go to the café,” Nicole explains. “We had a proper [vegetarian] café running” using ingredients they had grown themselves.
Managing Expectations
Jan joined for the fourth version of the garden. At the time he was teaching with Dr Julia King at the Bartlett School of Architecture. They invited their students to develop a new vision for the Skip Garden based on what Global Generation and the community wanted and needed.
“He believes that architecture students should be able to build what they design,” which Nicole admires. But in the cold light of day, the unpredictable reality was “amazingly challenging”, Jan admits.
We had 15 incredibly excited students who we’d promised would be doing a real project without really understanding the consequences of that promise.
Jan Kattein
The garden had to be done without a budget or professional builders, “and we realised we needed planning permission.” If it fell through, Jan risked knocking the students’ enthusiasm or, worse still disappointing and losing the local community.
He needn’t have worried: the students took responsibility for obtaining planning permission, building much of the site, and even some fundraising. For Jan – a vastly experienced architect and project manager – it was a swift lesson in handling expectations.
The Story Garden
In its heyday, the Skip Garden attracted in excess of 10,000 visitors per year but, ultimately, it had to vacate King’s Cross as the last plots of land were developed.
Nicole wrote to the British Library after learning of what seemed a suitable site for the garden’s next resting place. They were keen, but at first only offered half the site. “The other half would be a car park,” which would not serve the nearby population and exacerbate the air pollution from neighbouring roads, “so we fought for that as an environmental space.”
Maybe what clinched it for Global Generation was the library’s ambition to be seen supporting neighbouring Somers Town. Co-founder of architecture and landscape studio DSDHA, Deborah Saunt, says that the British Library was seen by some of the local community as a stuffy, “inward-looking” institution that “means nothing to them because it’s done nothing for them”. It needed a bridge to the local community, and “knew that [Global Generation] were able to build up those links,” Nicole adds.
A Likely Story
Drafting in Jan’s help again, plans were drawn up for the site: a toilet block, community kitchen, classroom, and workshop. The Skip Garden became the Story Garden. Not in recognition of its new home, but “it was named through a community process to reflect the many stories that get shared and created” there, the official website states.
The site doubled in size to about an acre, allowing them to add an orchard and a small oak forest to the flower and vegetable beds that they had always cultivated. They even kept some of the original skips as a reminder of the garden’s origins.
In all, the Story Garden was open for 6 years, providing a space for social interaction, connection with nature, and curated programmes adding social value to the local area. It offered an after-school club and doubled as an education centre, where local people could attend workshops, cultural events, and fun activities, and learn about food and cooking in the fully equipped kitchen.
A Permanent Home
The site closed in October 2025 to make way for the British Library’s planned extension, designed by Deborah’s team at DSDHA. Conversations with local people made it clear that they were not easy with losing their green pocket and so a new one – smaller, but permanent – was added to the concept. And although the garden has changed its location, the “people who have become inspired by gardening and food growing” have the appetite to “carry on being custodians”, Deborah says – something of a relief in a country fragrantly undervaluing its green spaces.
In the end, that’s what you need: more people who take care of spaces.
Nicole van den Eijnde
After all these years, and all the joy it had given people, the King’s Cross Partnership honoured the Story Garden by offering a new, permanent space, a triangular plot of land surrounded by railway lines at the north-eastern fringe of the regeneration area. This happens to be also at the end of the Camden Highline, an elevated green corridor connecting Camden Town and King’s Cross along a disused railway line.
Negotiating the Future
For the Story Garden, Global Generation was originally offered a 99-year lease, after which the developer would reclaim the land. Nicole suggested Argent add another “9”.
So, for the next millennium the Story Garden will sit in a triangular corner of King’s Cross. Originally, this was set aside for a habitat area, but Global Generation’s social programmes require small buildings. This had to be negotiated with Islington Council.
“We put forward that, basically, it being an educational garden would serve a much bigger and better purpose,” Nicole explains. “We would still make it a habitat area, but at the same time we would be educating and involving children and people to awaken a sense of connection and care for the natural world.”
Planning permission “was never contested”.
Jan adds that, as with all of Global Generation’s builds, they wanted the engagement and educational aspects of the project to start immediately, without waiting for the buildings to be completed. “This is why we decided to design using materials and techniques that community volunteers could master,” he says. “Opening the site up to volunteers means that we are building community whilst building the buildings together.”
Building a Permanent Garden
Since the beginning of the build in July 2024, Global Generation has engaged 3,000 people in the making of the space, making this a truly co-created space, which fosters a strong sense of stewardship among the community.
It has turned traditional construction processes upside down, Jan continues. “We couldn’t use a conventional building contractor and needed to think hard how we manage risk and unforeseen circumstances.” The site is run by a core team of two architects, three carpenters, and a builder supplemented by a team of natural-build trainees, specialists for complex work items, and an army of volunteers, he explains.
The natural materials include 8,000 sweet chestnut wooden shakes (a form of peg) which come from a sustainably managed sweet chestnut coppice woodland in Sussex, where Global Generation takes young people for residential camping trips in summer.
Sustainable and circular practices are still alive and well, Nicole is proud to report. As much as 60% is biomaterial – “so all natural materials without the use of fossil fuels,” Nicole clarifies. A further 30% is made from reused building materials sourced from King’s Cross contractors, including:
- Classroom flooring made from offcuts out of a neighbouring residential block
- Glazing donated by a “supplier who always has windows that people have ordered that are the wrong size”
- Local straw and clay from the King’s Cross construction used to make insulated cob walls through a process called cobbauge
The remaining one-tenth of the construction is bought out of necessity, and sometimes not climate-friendly.
The Legacy of a Nomadic Garden
Eighteen months after construction began, roofs were added to the new Story Garden’s buildings, which went up with plenty of help from volunteers on organised community build days, twilight builds, and school workshops.
When finished, the Story Garden will also include a forest garden, food growing area, water harvesting systems, resilient garden, and a wilderness area, inviting greater urban biodiversity and creating an oasis of calm for visitors.
In the year 2024-25 – roughly the first year on the permanent site – ninety-five per cent of young people on Global Generation’s natural build traineeship programme felt that they had gained new skills, the same amount said it had a positive impact on their wellbeing, and 100% felt more connected to nature.
Just as well the garden’s future is secured.
“Once people have come and they feel part of it, they bring friends” and keep coming back, Nicole says.
Here the skips will finally be laid to rest, having served their purpose well. Jan suggests that one or two might end up being built into the design as a monument commemorating the garden’s literal journey.
But as with every aspect of the Story Garden, this will be up to the community, Nicole reminds us: “It’s really about giving local people the opportunity to be involved in the changes that are happening” – for now, and it seems, for the next 999 years.