Plans to develop a Peace Garden for Amott Road
We want to transform the garden at Amott Road Baptist Church into a Peace Garden - a free, inclusive space that the church community, building users, Little Jungle children and local residents can access and enjoy. We’d love to hear your views on any changes.
As a community of Jesus-followers, we are committed to seeking peace, celebrating creativity and working for justice in our community and city. The Peace Garden will be an additional place in our neighbourhood to explore and cultivate these values in a different setting.
Some initial ideas
We are considering a range of improvements, including:
New planting to support wildlife and increase biodiversity
Additional seating and quiet spaces
Improved accessibility and pathways
Opportunities for community gardening and volunteering
Hosting seasonal workshops and events to help combat isolation and foster community relationships
Creating a more welcoming and attractive environment for everyone
No final decisions have been made, and we are keen to gather feedback before developing the proposals further. Please follow the link to fill out a short form to have your say!
This is a collaboration between Little Jungle Nursery and Amott Road Baptist Church - the staff and children at Little Jungle have been thinking and developing ideas and plans for what the new garden could look like! From the Nursery:
Growing a Garden Together
A collaborative project with Amott Road Baptist Church, our neighbours
Something is taking root next door. Together with Amott Road Baptist Church, we are redesigning their side garden — a space many of our children already know and love — into a community garden: a place that celebrates biodiversity, cultivates ecological sensitivity, and offers everyone a shared space of peace, relationship and spirituality.
Our relationship with the church stretches back many years. During Covid, their generosity gave our ‘bubbles’ a safe outdoor space in this very garden, and the children have felt at home there ever since.
Over the past year, the children of our preschool room have been immersed in the world of spiders. Born of a shared fascination with connecting spaces and building relationships between all aspects of their world, the spider’s web became a rich field of research — one that opened up multitudes of concepts while nurturing a deep empathy for nature.
This enquiry reflects something we work hard to cultivate. Nature threads through everything we offer at Little Jungle, indoors and out: we make full use of local parks and wildlife gardens, intentionally nurturing biophilia in children’s hearts and minds. But for all the care we have taken with our own outdoor spaces, our urban garden cannot offer the immersive ecosystem children need to closely explore and follow nature’s inhabitants and the seasonal changes they experience. In the church’s garden — a space patiently waiting to be used and amplify its value — we saw an opportunity.
As the project developed, it felt only natural to invite the children into its design. The drawings and quotes displayed here share their points of view, drawn out by Atelierista Eloise’s framed and incisive questions. They make visible children’s innate necessity for beauty — and their strong empathy for what nature needs, too. These ideas have informed our design ideas for the evolving garden…
