Welcome

The LightHouse and Gardens is an exciting new community centre and gardens in Stratford E20 created to provide indoor and outdoor spaces to promote health and wellbeing opportunities for the local area and beyond.

The LightHouse offers classes, events, workshops and a variety of projects to support mind, body and soul whilst also being available to hire by practitioners, charities, businesses and individuals.  Sitting alongside is the Gardens, a community-focused food growing and garden space with art, workshops and green areas for relaxation and calm.

We envisage these spaces becoming a place to support the local community through a variety of offerings, somewhere for people to congregate, learn, grow and build new connections.

The LightHouse is situated on Celebration Avenue, just one minute walk from Stratford International Station and 10 minutes from Stratford Station via Westfield.  The community gardens are accessed via gates on International Way and Penny Brookes Street.

(Home page picture credit: Nicole Gomes)

About

The LightHouse and Gardens are designed to be a community empowerment space, where local residents have access to a range of facilities and resources that can act as an incubator for ideas, an activator for meaningful engagement or a place to simply be. 

The spaces form part of a meanwhile project which The Heart to Heart Collective and Nomadic Gardens are delivering on behalf of Hadley Property Group. Hadley, which owns the site, is in the early stages of working up proposals for a mixed-use development on this site in Stratford to be delivered over the coming few years.

The LightHouse and Gardens exist to make full use of the site prior to its redevelopment and to provide support, collaboration and facilities to the community during the planning and development process. As such, what you will find on site will be constantly evolving and changing – so get involved, and tell us what else you would like to see!

Based on the premise that ‘we are the sum of our relationships’ to one another, ourselves, our environment, our food, jobs, sleep, everything, we aim to create spaces that encourage people to commune, converse and congregate and re-establish vital human connection.

So this is an invitation to join us and share your experience and energy in a space that’s about co-creation and empowerment, unity and community 

“If you want to go quickly, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” – African Proverb

The Gardens

James Wheale, known as Jimmy, was the conduit that gave rise to the Nomadic Gardens in Shoreditch and Queens Park and is now curating our gardens at The LightHouse. Jimmy has been a community organiser, activist and landscaper shaping the urban and cultural landscape of his hometown London in his small way for many years now. He is a social entrepreneur that believes one of the ways we can combat the alienation and atomisation we feel in the city is by having access to open spaces that provide meaningful activities for local residents and visitors to get involved in.

He is a passionate advocate for community led startups and grassroots activism which encouraged him to brokering the access to brownfield sites awaiting development and turning them into meanwhile use community garden spaces.

If you would like to know more about reserving a planting bed, please complete this form. Priority will be given to people living in E20 and E15 postcodes.

We would like this space to encourage a sense of ownership and responsibility for local residents who see it as their own and who use it to build the relationships so crucial to our quality of life.

 gardens@thelighthouseandgardens.com

Hadley Property Group

Hadley Property Group, which owns the IQL North development site on which The LightHouse is situated, is a progressive, sustainable and inclusive development company committed to the curation and delivery of mixed-use neighbourhoods in London.

The LightHouse and Gardens is the first phase of a number of purpose-driven meanwhile uses which will operate from the site across the next 1-2 years.

The Lighthouse and Gardens will also be incorporated into the final proposals for the site and rehoused in the completed development, continuing to be available for everyone to use.

For more information on this and Hadley’s other projects, please visit their website.

Hiring The LightHouse

The LightHouse is available to hire for regular or one-off events.  There are two rooms available, a relaxed cosy space which is ideal for therapists and wellness practitioners, and the main room which is perfect for movement classes, workshops, rehearsals, meetings, children’s parties or any kind of group event. 

Facilities:

The building is fully accessible and all on the ground floor.  It is a bright airy space with plenty of natural lighting and roller blinds for privacy.  There is direct access to a private patio and garden area at the rear of the building which is separate to the community gardens.

The Glade

• Partially shaded seating area for users of both the LightHouse and the Gardens

Hire The LightHouse

What’s On

Contact

Address
The LightHouse – 38 Celebration Avenue, Stratford, London E20 1DB
The Gardens – Accessed via gates on International Way and Penny Brookes Street

Opening Hours
The LightHouse: Monday-Saturday 8am – 10pm (depending on events)
The Gardens: Wednesday-Sunday, 10am – sundown

Email Us
The LightHouse – hello@thelighthouseandgardens.com
The Gardens – gardens@thelighthouseandgardens.com