What is it? A two-for-the-price-of-one offering this time: Harleyford Road Community Garden is an apparenty shape-shifting (for which read ‘compact but easy to get lost in’), shady nature garden replete with benches, swings and a pond. Bonnington Square Pleasure Garden is a small but perfectly formed green patch fashioned from an old bomb site. The two are connected by a secret passage.

Where is it? Harleyford Road is actually a stretch of the A202 which is one of the busiest arteries of South East London: the Oval is but a strong-armed pitch over over the road, and the upper levels of MI6 are quite visible. The rather chi-chi Bonnington Square is just over the hedge and behind a row of buildings: the two gardens are all but joined at the hip. (And seemingly enjoyed by the hip.)

Why has it tickled our fancy? Because both plots truly are blooming examples of what community effort can do. It was the community (which at that time included garden designer Dan Pearson) that took control of the Bonnington Square space from the council in the 1990s, and it remains community led and fed and watered. The use of ‘Pleasure Gardens’ in the title also offers an affectionate throwback to the original gardens near the site: the Vauxhall Pleaure Gardens. The inclusion of the old waterwheel, and sundry bits of architectural salvage and mosaic, make this a delightful and quirky spot to while a way an hour or so on a sunny July afternoon. Not that Londonist gets two hour lunch breaks or anything.

Nature notes: There is nothing wild or particularly random about these two gardens – they are well maintained and full of well-thought out blooms (including an awful lot of pretty thistles). When we visited there were murmurous bees, and butterflies, and it was all, well, just so. The Harleyford Road garden has just enough overhanging trees and nooks and crannies for one to think that it might perhaps come alive more at night….

via Nature-ist: Harleyford Road and Bonnington Square | Londonist.

To walk into Italo is to see all of the reverence and care of his mothers approach to food married with a relaxed aesthetic that is Charlies trademark. With an emphasis on Italian produce, home-made fresh ravioli and great bunches of herbs sit next to plump tomatoes and crusty fresh bread, while staff bustle behind the counters, making coffee and generously stuffed panini for customers to linger over at an outside table. Its the very picture of bonhomie.

Three years ago, a boarded-up shop occupied this now-thronging corner of the square. Its owner, who had stoically seen the area was fought over by squatters and developers, had retired; the squatters won and created a peaceful network of streets abundant with greenery and a mildly eccentric personality. Into this scene stepped Charlie, with no retail experience but an abiding passion for Italian produce and a fan of the square, after soaking up the atmosphere from the Bonnington Café opposite. He, with his friend Luigi – whose own family had closed their deli not far away – decided to create their own shop. “I have a very strong dislike of expensive food shops and that whole Borough Market thing – the effect where quality translates into high prices and exclusivity,” says Charlie now. “People can feel excluded from the food revolution going on.”They dont at Italo. The shop stocks essentials and store-cupboard basics unusual and good-quality brands, often Italian, along with wine, Rococo chocolates owner Chantal Coady was once a Bonnington activist and treats including Gelato Delight ice-creams – worth a detour alone.Sadly, one item no longer in stock is Arabellas home-made terrine. “I was making two a week, which was fun, and they were very popular,” she recalls. “But it was quite tedious after the hundredth.” Lucky visitors, however, may spot her on one of her occasional visits to her sons shop.

Also a semi-regular fixture at Charlies shop is his son Frank, 24. Frank is the wild-haired, youngest of the clan, and his zest for life and what his brother Jackson calls “enormous charm, enthusiasm and grit” make him an asset to the familys operations, which he helps in the long gap between his bars opening months of July to September.

via Boxer uprising: How three generations of one family have changed the way we think about food – Features, Food & Drink – The Independent.

In the early ’80s Bonnington Square, only minutes from Vauxhall Bridge, was almost entirely inhabited by squatters. The film, telling the story of this urban community, revisits the inhabitants that created its bohemian setting. A utopian story of successful communal living, it stresses the idea of cohabitation based on teamwork. The use of animated decoupage of drawings and archive photos creates a video collage that relates well to the artists whose story it was in a warm and inviting way. This film was the best in the entire series.

via London International Documentary Festival 2011 – Invisible City | Blog | littlewhitelies.co.uk.