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Consisting of late nineteenth century terraced housing Kildare Street is typical of the street housing found in much of the Gresham Ward of Middlesbrough. The houses do not have the benefit of front gardens and so each house has just the narrow pavement between the house and the kerbside.

In 2002 Middlesbrough Borough Council facilitated a number of hanging basket workshops for the benefit of the local community. The workshops were free of charge and each resident was eligible for one free basket per household to be displayed on the house frontage to add colour to the streets. To support the initiative the local authority agreed to put up brackets for residents where required.

Initially one or two baskets were damaged or stolen but as the project moved into year two it was noticed that residents started to keep an eye on each others baskets. Slowly but surely baskets were supplemented with planters, tubs and window boxes. A gardening competition to judge the best house frontage and best backyard quickly cemented the good work that had begun with the basket workshops.

In 2004 a gardening club was formed with 14 members the club is now 36 members strong. The club organises trips, workshops and partnerships with horticultural bodies and invites guest speakers to talk about horticultural subjects. The hanging baskets have now been augmented with Christmas wreath workshops and with other gardening workshop in the summer and autumn months.

Kildare Street does raise the interesting prospect that different horticulture components could be applied systematically to a community to help engender community spirit and cultivate civic pride.

 

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