Charlie's Patch

Our community garden in Bowden Street was formerly abandoned waste ground. In 2011 local residents cleared the site and began guerrilla gardening with a few donated plants. As the garden developed, it was named Charlie’s Patch. It is overlooked by the house in Methley Street where Charlie Chaplin once lived as a young boy. The activity he watched from his doorstep was to inspire his famous character and films.  

Volunteers from the residents’ association and the neighbouring Heart of Kennington Residents’ Association regularly maintained the garden, with the encouragement of the local council.

In 2024 a project was launched to created one large planting bed on the site to make the garden more able to cope with hotter and drier summers. Generous funding and support came from residents of both associations, London Borough of Lambeth’s Changing Lives Social Value Fund, developer Berkeley Homes and contractors NAO Landscapes Ltd.  

Three residents, all professional landscape designers, planned the overall design. The planting scheme used suggestions from those living nearby, with an emphasis on plants and flowers which attract bees and butterflies. The re-landscaped garden was officially opened by the Mayor of Lambeth in May 2025.