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From left: Adrian Whyatt, feltmaker Alva Wilson, Molly Porter, David Shamash, Jamie Lim, Clare Falconer and Wendy Lim in their garden in Legard Road |
Autism group calls for ‘stay of execution’
Sculptors evicted from garden ‘haven’ as land is sold for housing development project
AN AUTISTIC sculpture group is pleading for a stay of execution before they are evicted from the garden they have made their haven.
The self-help group must leave Memory Garden in Legard Road, Highbury, in September, because landlord NCH (National Children’s Homes) is selling the land and neighbouring buildings to create 300 homes.
Although the group doesn’t oppose the redevelopment, members want to keep using the land until work starts, which could be years away.
Group co-ordinator Ruth Solomon said: “We don’t want to appear ungrateful to NCH and we’re no threat to their planning application.
“We only want to continue to use it until building work begins.
“It’s taken eight years to get where we are. We don’t want to be tidied away. We can’t just put everything in a bag and lay it on a table somewhere else.”
But NCH head of communications Greg Vines said the group “wanted to leave in September”, adding: “They’ve been part of our consultation and we need to keep to our timescale because we need to keep to costs.
“We’ve been trying to get hold of the co-ordinator for some time and have had no response.”
Although he wouldn’t say if NCH would consider letting the group stay longer, he said Ms Solomon should get in touch. But Ms Solomon said she had been frequently in contact with NCH and that the group only agreed to a in September after they were asked to leave much earlier, in December last year.
Ms Solomon found the land seven years ago and asked NCH if she could make use of it.
Since then, the group has cleared the garden, grown plants, berries and vegetables, and use it as a place to relax, create pieces of artwork and do daily duties like making the tea. The group now runs a youth club for autistic children.
One regular visitor has his own routine, where he retraces his steps around the garden every day as he puts out bird seed in very particular spots.
Others have carefully laid pieces of wood in a circular pattern in the middle of the ground, each one mapping out their memories. All this is soon to be lost.
Ms Solomon said the garden “challenges institutional care models” by allowing the visitors to work out their own ways of learning and acting.
She added: “Autistic people are at the centre of this project. They are the ones making the tea, arranging the plants, building the sculptures. In this situation they are the home-makers. So it is about ongoing small acts of hospitality.
“To be part of the community autistic people need active roles of participation. They need to experiment with their own value systems in a real place where their day-to-day decision making has a tangible, on-going effect.”
Adrian Whyatt, chairman of the Greater London Action on Disability, who uses the garden, said: “I come here to chill out. I didn’t want to have to conduct a campaign to save this because it destructs our peace.
“It’s been very stressful having to fight to keep it.”
David Shamash, who has been using the garden for five years, added: “Many people are attached to this place and will be sad to see it go.” |
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