On Tuesday, I went with Marcus Belben to Swan Corner, bringing plants, gardening tools and wood chippings. Swan Corner is a community project to improve the area around the Brook Lane/Wheelers Lane roundabout, started by Marcus and supported by residents and organisations including Swanshurst School. We were expecting a group from the school to come […]
Category: Space Stories
Jamie reports on the unnamed park on Albert road, known by some as cage park: ‘The park has recently begun being rebuilt, with trim trail equipment and a new gravel path. I went past there recently to see what it looked like, and how the construction was going. It seems to be almost complete, with just […]
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Noticeboard planted
Working on Swan Corner’s been great to get to know neighbours. You get to see people, chat, see the problems, why people get so upset about the traffic and the parking. Now that work has started on planting, positioned a noticeboard, begun filming, photoing, documenting the area and the problems, talking to more people, it […]
Sticking a spade into a grassy patch near a roundabout for the first time felt a little naughty. I had a feeling a van would turn up at any minute and take me away. Passers by were all encouraging of any attempt to make things better. Many of them didn’t believe the willow fedge I […]
It’s always interesting to see how other people do things. Here’s an apparently accidental solution to slowing traffic in San Francisco, with the added benefit of tourists slowing traffic in much faster adjacent roads to get their photo taken. This road is now marked in tourist guides including lonely planet we were using, promoted as […]
Come to Howard Road Park, walk down to Albert Road Park, cycle over to Corner Park or break into Cage Park! Whatever you call it, this is an open invitation to join in with play and planning, bring along your boules, chairs, swing-ball, anything you’d like to see in the park. It’s National Tree Dressing Day, […]
The ‘Long Park Corridor’ is a mile of green areas along Howard Road, Howard Road East and Wheelers Lane. Apart from Howard Road Play Park, these green areas are unused, except as places that people pass through. We see huge potential in this as a transport route, a floral and edible growing trail, a play space, […]
It was a rainy day, but didn’t dampen resolve on Kings Heath Square to close more streets next year and open them for play. We were well supported by Parks for Play and Hall Green Arts, providing a range of creative activities, and two previous street coordinators were there to answer questions over a cuppa […]
Howie is an ordinary Gnome on an extraordinary mission – to save the planet, one gnome at a time. See if you can spot special agent Howie at Lifford Lane in this video: You may also be spotting him along Birmingham’s newest park in Kings Heath, so new it only has a working title, Long […]
I pass the roundabout next to Kings Heath Primary every day – It’s regularly the site for frayed tempers and near accidents. It was designed on the ‘open space’ concept – for drivers and pedestrians to make way for each other, the intention being to open up the road for more vulnerable bikes and pedestrians. […]