Businesses and volunteers from around Baker Street and Marylebone joined forces to help restore a Westminster community centre.
Over 30 people from businesses, including London & Regional Properties, The Portman Estate and Double Tree by Hilton Marble Arch, came together to restore the gardens at The Portman Early Childhood Centre at Lisson Grove, which had become run down and in need of work.
Work carried out included dredging and cleaning the water feature, landscaping the flower beds and planting around 200 new plants, replacing and repainting worn timber and creating an allotment space to allow children and their parents to grow vegetables,
Many businesses helped raise the £4,000 needed by donations to carry out the repair work.
The centre supports around 90 children, aged two to four, and their families, to provide education and play as well as a broader level of family services including parenting support, learning and where needed, victim support.
It has two roof gardens which provide the only outdoor play space that many of its children and families have easy access to.
The Baker Street Quarter Partnership, which represents over 170 businesses in the Baker Street and Marylebone area, coordinated the project as part of its Smarter Giving initiative where it enables its members to support local causes, to ensure that the gardens were ready for children to use in the spring.
Joanna White, headteacher and childhood centre manager, said: “We are incredibly honoured and grateful to have received such a large level of support from local businesses and volunteers, which has secured the future of the gardens, allowing them to be enjoyed by both children and adults alike.
“Our thanks go to the Baker Street Quarter Partnership for facilitating this project and the local businesses who have supported us.
“Without this kind of support we would not be able to carry on providing the services that we do.”
