We’ve been working recently with Southern Railway to create a pocket park at London Rd Station. We’re hoping it will be a little oasis of shade and wildflowers where neighbours can sit out, particularly in the hotter summer months. Let us know what you think …

It all came about when a neighbour, John, asked if it was possible to access a derelict area on the south sided the station. Peering through the fencing all we could see was rubble, dead branches, overgrown brambles and an old hut which had been repeatedly tagged.

But Southern have allowed us to access the site, and John got going on clearing the area. It’s about 75 square metres with quite a few trees. There were huge amounts of litter, old wood, barbed wire, concrete and general junk to be cleared (including the remains of a car bonnet buried underneath the ivy!).

And then, as part of a project ‘Grow Wild on the Railway’, the tagged shed got a makeover from two talented artists, Esther and Mia, recently graduated from Kingston University.

This lovely design, in colours that work well in a shady area, was inspired by a workshop with members of the station partnership. Mia and Esther had us drawing wildflowers, looking at bold shapes and colours.

We’re now onto the next stage: trying to get funding to regenerate the area further: install trellising, plant a shady wildflower area, get some seating and picnic tables and make some woodchip paths. We hope to have the pocket park up and running in the spring.

We’d love to hear from neighbours about any ideas you might have for our London Rd Station pocket park …

We thought, for example, that it would be great to have some artwork from local artists displayed on this wall … (By the way, we think that’s the old terracotta-coloured paint from the 1990s when the whole station was painted that colour).

And if you’d like to get involved with helping regenerate the site, please get in touch. We’re going to need some people power to make this all happen!