{"id":16453,"date":"2017-08-22T15:39:14","date_gmt":"2017-08-22T14:39:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ihbconline.co.uk\/newsachive\/?p=16453"},"modified":"2017-08-22T15:39:35","modified_gmt":"2017-08-22T14:39:35","slug":"befs-blog-a-garden-for-grantons-renaissance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/?p=16453","title":{"rendered":"BEFS Blog: A Garden for Granton\u2019s Renaissance"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3><a href=\"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/Friends_of_Granton_Garden_blog_220817.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-16454\" src=\"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/Friends_of_Granton_Garden_blog_220817.png\" alt=\"Friends of Granton Garden website\" width=\"250\" height=\"205\" \/><\/a>Chair of Built Environment Scotland (BEFS), Graeme Purves, tells members about the restoration of an overgrown renaissance garden in Granton as a catalyst for urban renewal.<\/h3>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>BEFS\u2019 Chair writes:<\/p>\n<p>A community-based group in North Edinburgh has begun the work of restoring an overgrown renaissance garden in Granton as a catalyst for urban renewal of the waterfront.\u00a0 The historic garden had previously been the subject of a planning application for housing development but these plans were subsequently withdrawn.\u00a0 In October 2016 the Friends of Granton Castle Walled Garden submitted proposals to Edinburgh City Council\u2019s development company, the EDI Group, to restore it as a working garden and green hub for community activity.\u00a0 Discussions over the winter led to the Friends signing a legal agreement with EDI and securing access to the garden in April.<\/p>\n<p>Granton Castle Walled Garden is probably one of the oldest walled gardens in Scotland.\u00a0 The earliest reference to \u2018Grantoun House\u2019 is in 1479 and it is thought that the garden dates from that time.\u00a0 Granton Castle itself was abandoned as a residence in the 18th century, became a picturesque ruin during the 19th century and was finally demolished in the 1920s.\u00a0 However, the walled garden survived and continued in use as a market garden until relatively recent times.<\/p>\n<p>The Friends see the restoration of the garden as offering a wide range of benefits in terms of health and well-being, social cohesion, cross-cultural integration, community education and local capacity-building.\u00a0 Key elements of their vision are that it should be:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>a garden for all to enjoy, with a range of learning, growing and arts activities and a diverse events programme;<\/li>\n<li>a restored market garden run by the local community, supplying organic produce directly to local people, businesses and schools.<\/li>\n<li>a living link to the past , serving as a heritage gateway to the waterfront and a green social hub for existing and future communities.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Specific features which have been proposed include a visitor centre and community caf\u00e9, a kitchen garden, a heritage orchard, a plant nursery, a workshop and demonstration area, a medicinal and pigment garden, a restored glasshouse and a polytunnel.<\/p>\n<p>The restoration of Granton Castle Walled Garden as a community asset is supported by a wide range of local stakeholders and national organisations.\u00a0 The Friends are working closely with Scotland\u2019s Urban Past on surveying and recording aspects of the garden\u2019s heritage.<\/p>\n<p>In this first season, volunteers have been busy removing the stumps of tree saplings which had started to colonise the garden and restoring one area to cultivation.\u00a0 The Friends are also working with EDI to make the garden safe and accessible to visitors and preparing a business plan for its long- term development.\u00a0 The garden is one of 28 sites across Scotland featured this summer in the Scottish Society of Antiquaries\u2019 \u2018Dig It!\u2019 Hidden Gems competition.\u00a0 It will be open to the public as part of the Cockburn Association\u2019s Doors Open Day programme on Saturday 23 September.<\/p>\n<p>The charity Social Bite has submitted an application for planning permission to erect temporary houses for homeless people on land immediately to the west of the walled garden.\u00a0 If permission is granted, it is expected that the 11 \u2018nesthouses\u2019 will be built in the autumn.\u00a0 The Friends are looking forward to working closely with Social Bite and the residents on gardening projects once the development is completed.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"xwGgabYSZ2\"><p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.befs.org.uk\/latest\/a-garden-for-grantons-renaissance\/\">A Garden for Granton&#8217;s Renaissance<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; clip: rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);\" title=\"&#8220;A Garden for Granton&#8217;s Renaissance&#8221; &#8212; Built Environment Forum Scotland\" src=\"https:\/\/www.befs.org.uk\/latest\/a-garden-for-grantons-renaissance\/embed\/#?secret=SNx6lVdcUX#?secret=xwGgabYSZ2\" data-secret=\"xwGgabYSZ2\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Visit the Friends of Granton Castle Garden <a href=\"https:\/\/grantoncastlewalledgarden.wordpress.com\/2017\/07\/03\/midsummer-news-from-grantons-lost-castle-garden\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">website<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Chair of Built Environment Scotland (BEFS), Graeme Purves, tells members about the restoration of an overgrown renaissance garden in Granton as a catalyst for urban renewal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16453","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sector-newsblog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16453","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16453"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16453\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16455,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16453\/revisions\/16455"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}