“Croydon Saffron Central (CSC) was formed in the late summer of 2015 as a pop up community garden based on the heritage of Croydon’s name which is thought to mean ‘Crocus Valley’. It was crowd funded via Spacehive and received the support of hundreds of people in the Croydon community and beyond.

After the successful harvest of 11,000 Crocus Sativus blooms, which reaped 58 grams of Saffron, & the sharing of around 10,000 plants to community gardens, the site evolved into a ‘Bee Haven’. Bee hives were installed by the Croydon Beekeepers Association and all manner of seeds were planted & nurtured to help promote a Bee friendly environment. The inside of the hoardings on the former Taberner House site were painted with bees, pollinators, flowers and other creative installations. The farm received a Level 4 Award (Thriving) from the Royal Horticultural Society as a Community Garden. 

A 2nd Saffron harvest took place in the autumn of 2016 and CSC tenure continued in the space into 2017. News that Croydon Pride would take place in the Queens Gardens next door to CSC for the summer of 2017 triggered the imagination of organisers at ‘the worlds largest urban pop up Saffron farm’.

There were 6 lanes that were 15 metres in length at the farm & there were 6 colours in the rainbow flag that represents Pride, could a floral rainbow flag be created....? ‘Chasing Rainbows’ invited the community to donate plants that were all the colours of the rainbow.  Each plant was added to the respective lane as red, orange, yellow, green, blue & purple. In addition, under a theme of ‘Hearts & Rainbows’, the community was invited to paint or create art works on the hoardings or install their creation wherever they felt it would look good in the space. This was a colossal effort from the community with hundreds of plants, pots & earth donated, repotted, watered and distributed around the space.  The art creations were extraordinary from ages ranging from 5 - 80 years of age.

The site was visited by hundreds of people and on the day of Croydon Pride in The Queens Gardens hundreds more walked around the site to witness the 150 metre squared floral rainbow flag.

As autumn closed in, the rainbow flag plants moved to the periphery of the space to enable one final harvest of the stunning Crocus Sativus, the flower of Croydon.  All plants from the site were subsequently shared with community gardens, groups, schools, religious spaces and the magnificent community members who made the site a truly wonderful meanwhile space in the heart of Croydon. Croydon Saffron Central has not continued in a new location to date but the Crocuses still bloom throughout the valleys of Croydon between October & November each year.  It’s legacy should also be seen when the Queens Gardens is redeveloped as the flowers feature in various parts of the garden, cafe & play space plans.”

Click here for Ally’s interview with the Croydonist from November 2016.