St Mary's Therapeutic Garden and Churchyard

A haven of calm and  tranquility in the heart of Lewisham, St Mary's Therapeutic Garden and Churchyard is open to anyone who would like a place to sit quietly and enjoy the beauty and peace it offers.  

The area has been transformed since 2017 when a Heritage Lottery Grant enabled the creation of the Therapeutic Garden as a collaboration between the church and South London and Maudsley NHS Mental Health Unit.  That was the first phase of the project.

From a space that was troubled by anti-social behaviour, it is now a well-used and much-loved garden for everyone in Lewisham - an area that scores highly on the urban deprivation index.  A team of volunteers maintain the garden and welcome patients from the mental health unit into the garden every week throughout the year, for gardening and companionship and to enjoy this beautiful space.  We also have monthly community gardening sessions which attract local residents who want to help us to maintain this green oasis in the city.  

Phase 2 has seen the development of the North Churchyard - the area immediately surrounding the church.  People have worshipped on this site for over 1,000 years and the churchyard includes graves dating from Anglo-Saxon time.  There are many lovely old yew trees but it had become over-grown, and had fallen into a state of significant disrepair and suffered from recent droughts.    

The dilapidated Churchyard

Over the last few years, the volunteer gardening team from the Therapeutic Garden have been working with a professional gardener to transform the the dilapidated churchyard and to create a biodiverse and sustainable haven with wildflower meadows, a pond, a new native hedgerow and perennial borders edging wheelchair-accessible paths, whilst maintaining the ancient and contemplative spirit of the place.  

The gardening team hard at work

The transformed Churchyard

You can find out more about us here: https://www.lewishamparish.com/garden

Why are we Crowd Funding?

To maintain this garden, we need water!  We manage our water use very carefully, but new planting in particular, depends on water at least until the root systems are fully established.   So, ensuring that we retain as much rainwater as we can is vital for the sustainability of the garden.  

We are crowdfunding to raise £4,500 to pay for the purchase and installation of a second 1,900 litre water-butt to harvest as much rainwater from the church roof as possible.  Together these water-butts will provide an essential source of non-mains water for the new planting in the north churchyard, with the additional eco-benefit of reducing the volume of rainwater entering the overloaded drainage system.  

The existing water-butt – holding 1900 litres of rainwater from the church roof – we now need another one. 

 A single downpour can completely fill the water-butts with  4,000 litres of precious rainwater.  We need your help to stop it going down the drain!  

How you can play your part

There are three simple ways to help us to reach our target and make this project a reality.

1. Make a pledge. Donate money directly to this page. Don’t delay if you're going to support us because momentum is key to our success!

2. Spread the word. Share our project on your social media pages and tell the world to get behind us! The more people we reach, the more support we will get.

3. Get involved – come along and enjoy watering the garden with us.

Aviva have generously agreed to match-fund what we raise through this page – so do help us to achieve our target!

How we’ll spend the money raised.

All of the money we raise here will go towards the purchase and installation of a new water-butt.  If we exceed our target, we will put the money towards a third water-butt to make sure that we make the most of this natural resource for the benefit of our whole community!