London Road Station Partnership Blog

So I’m new to writing for the London Road Station Partnership blog- I guess that’s because this time last week I didn’t really know about the partnership. My name is Orla Byrne, and I’m one of the 12 young volunteers currently working at the station for the duration of this week as part of a summer course that we’ve been participating in- the National Citizen Service- and in partnership with Albion in the Community.

When we got the chance to look at different projects in and around Brighton, and were asked to consider which one we most felt we could contribute to and make successful, the opportunity to paint a mural and revamp the station seemed to jump out of the page. The brief suggested an opportunity for creativity and a real sense of community, and having only been here for a day so far, we’ve not been let down.

Our plan for the week is to create a mosaic mural in the subway at the station, and we feel that this will not only bring vibrancy to the previously drab area of the station, but also that the mural that we have designed will show the strong partnership which has been forged by the two organisations that made this opportunity possible for us- LRSP and Albion in the Community. The design, shown below, ties in the idea of seagulls and the logo of Brighton Albion with imagery of flowers and nature, now found around the station thanks to the work of LRSP, and the multi coloured wave background not only gives a bright and cheerful tone to the piece, but the waves echo an image often associated with Brighton as a city.

We arrived at the station today at midday, and set to work, all kitted up in our immensely trendy hi-visibility jackets. Our creative team- Izzy, Alice and Mairead- set to work with our team leader Amie to start transferring the outline of the mural onto the board that had been mounted in the subway, whilst the rest of the group grabbed our hoes and trowels and set to work weeding the station platforms and the area at the front of the station.

The time seemed to fly by, but as we finished our work and were able to admire a clearer and more aesthetically pleasing environment the design had been transferred onto the wall, and we came together to discuss our plans for the Big Mosaic Day- tomorrow!

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As well as writing this blog daily for the duration of the project, as part of the external communication role in my team, we’ve set up a twitter account! We’re hoping that this will spread word of the work we are doing, so the local and wider community can be fully aware of what (and why) we are doing, and fully benefit from our project. This also means that people who are invested in our project being a success can watch our work as it progresses and I document it in real time.

@a_team_7

is the place to be for updates and pictures of our project as it grows throughout the week, and also if you want to ask the team questions about our project.

So, thanks for reading, and I hope that you follow this project throughout the week, both on twitter and here on the LRSP blog as I write about the work we are doing, as we do it!

A great group of National Citizens Service volunteers started today at London Road Station. The ceramic mural will gradually take shape in the underpass, but today was mostly a day for clearing around the station and getting to grips with hoes (a few giggles here), the large broom, trowels and dustpan and brush. The group are going to write a guest blog for every day of their work here at London Road Station.

We’ve had wonderfully hot weather this summer but inevitably rising the to usual English summer climax of storms. We’ve just recovered from the weekend of very heavy rain (yippee!) and high winds (boo …) and temperatures now are significantly lower – under 20C. The water butts are full and the plants are not gasping anymore.

We had a great work session yesterday – probably for two reasons: 1) Sara made the massive courgette she took home last week into the most delicious courgette cake for this week’s work session, and 2) we didn’t have to spend the whole afternoon hefting loaded watering cans about the station. And 3) we put in seeds.

Daphne and Marlene at our new seed bed while Sara tends the tomato plants

We’ve cleared the chard, improved the soil with Veolia’s soil enhancer and nature has lavished it with rain. The soil is good and crumbly, and still lovely and warm. We’ve sown mostly leaf seeds: from right to left – curly endive, Italian Bondi lettuce, red ‘Mordore’ lettuce, ‘Kopsla’ lettuce, oriental greens and then a row of calendula. We’ll see what comes up. The curly leaves and the oriental leaves tend to be very robust. We may even be able to overwinter them.

I also managed to do some work on the shady triangle, clearing branches and sycamore leaves and ‘parachute’ seeds.

The new heuchera and fuchsias are looking lovely in the central area, and I found space for the lovely lime-leaved fuchsias which a neighbour, David in Stanley Road, had brought back to life after they’d been abandoned by a garden centre.

David had passed by while we were working at Preston Circus planters a couple of weeks ago, and kindly offered us some of his many cast-off fuchsias. He had a wonderful back garden with a tropical feel, full of rescued and foraged plants – quite an inspiration!

The station is getting a mini-makeover from a really lovely group of young volunteers, who arrived this morning for an initial recce. It’s part of National Citizen Service, managed in this area by Brighton & Hove Albion football club in collaboration with Southern Railway. They’ll be working in and around the station next week 18-22 August.

Following on a suggestion from Southern’s local maintenance team, their main project is sprucing up the unprepossessing (make that ‘depressing’) underpass. The idea is to create a set of panels to decorate the walls, probably using tile mosaic, with themes associated with the station.

They loved the garden, enjoyed the raspberries, tried lovage leaves and shared quite a bit of knowledge of growing, acquired in family gardens and allotments. Some were interested in helping in the garden and when not designing the panels, there may be sweeping, cleaning, shifting compost and painting. Walking around the station forecourt, they also noticed the puny plastic edging around the tree pits and have gone away to see whether they can come up with some sturdier wooden edging for us. Hooray!

And since we quickly established that we all love a (tea) party, we’re all going to get together for another local cakes-and-drinks-fest at the station on Friday 22nd 3pm to 4.30 or so. Put the date in your diary now and come along to see their creations!

Every year brings a different challenge to us at London Road Station garden. This year, it’s pests and plant diseases, along with the perennial challenge of watering.

We seem to just about be on top of the watering, but we are realising that our various planters do imply quite heavy demands. Our water butts ran out very early (end of June) and we had to refill from mains water with a complicated connection of hoses. Last week’s torrential tropical storm in Brighton did at least top them up again.

Our mini-orchard has been blighted by a serious aphid attack and last Tuesday, we noticed canker scars on poor old Crawley Beauty, our slowest growing apple tree. We’ve removed the obvious wood affected, but it looks like there may be more. A quick glance at the other trees did not reveal any spread so far. My ‘Pests and Diseases’ book is fairly low-key about canker: cut out the affected bit and improve growing conditions.

Meanwhile, though, some positive things: the plum tree is looking good with some nice plums ripening, our cavalo nero is growing well with – so far – minimal attacks from caterpillars. We’ve harvested beautiful red onions. Two large bunches are now hanging on my kitchen ceiling, sweetening for our harvest supper onion soup. We’ve also had some good potatoes – enough for around five of us to have a couple of portions. Not much, you might say, but that harvest came from three small seed potatoes that Sue couldn’t plant up in her allotment. And our courgettes – long thin and round ones – seem to be producing constantly.

Late July is relatively early for harvesting: in that respect, it’s been an extraordinary year. My greenhouse tomatoes are already ripening and we’ve had cucumbers since late June. As someone remarked the other day, at this rate, we may have to bring forward our annual harvest supper, usually planned for the end of October!