Finsbury Park church bags £2,600 funding boost towards garden revamp

The St Saviour’s Church garden, before and after. Picture: St Saviour’s Church (Image: Archant)

St Saviour’s Church on Hanley Road has received the Islington Local Initiative Fund (LIF) from Islington Council to help with the refurbishment.

The money will go towards a £10,000 to £20,000 project to revamp the garden so it can operate as a space that bring different parts of the community together.

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It is an 1,000sqm space at the rear of the church, is owned by the parish and is next to a 250sqm derelict mission hall.

St Saviour’s Church used the garden for a Sunday service. Picture: St Saviour’s Church (Image: Archant)

St Saviour’s aims to forge partnerships with various schools and organisations in the area and use the garden as a multi-use facility.

It has already contacted some local primary schools to see if they could host some after-school activities.

Matthew Cox, 47, who is part of the building and gardening team for St Saviour’s, said they are delighted and grateful for the cash boost.

Planning for the project started in 2019, however development started only six months ago during the first coronavirus lockdown.

St Saviour’s Church garden, before the project. Picture: St Saviour’s Church (Image: Archant)

After initial fears the pandemic could delay the revamp, it actually had the opposite effect, with more volunteers willing to help out with their newly-found free time.

Matthew said: “A lot of people in the area are experiencing isolation and loneliness, so we are really excited about the spring and summer when we plan to open and seeing what we are able to do.

“We are open to listening to ideas from people for what else the garden space can be used for.”

The church also plans on using the space to host services during the summer, which it already trialed in September before the second lockdown was introduced.

St Saviour’s Church garden after the revamp. Picture: St Saviour’s Church (Image: Archant)

St Saviour’s is still fundraising to plug the gap in its £10,000 to 20,000 - visit https://stsaviours.churchsuite.com/donate to donate to the church.