It has been an exciting few years...
In 2019 we ran a successful Community Share Offer raising over £250,000 with investors from the local community. With the investment under our belts we went full steam ahead creating the space of our dreams.
A purpose-built space to take us into the next 20 years and beyond...
Included in our final build, we now have a spacious new shop, a new shared office for our hard-working team, a community and volunteer hub – a place to meet to share ideas and experiences, a new display atrium with changing displays to reflect the seasons, a brand new cafe and a new toilet block with full access and baby changing facilities.
Hulme Community Garden Centre (HCGC) opened its doors back in 2000, converting an area of scrubland, and later a car park, into a public green space to encourage healthy living through gardening and sustainable food growing.
People grow here as much as the plants. We run an on-site activity programme with daily sessions providing meaningful opportunities to a wide range of people including parents and toddlers, adults with learning disabilities and sensory impairments, people who are beginner gardeners, and anyone who just wants to enjoy being outdoors and part of our volunteer family. It is an inclusive space, where over 30% of our volunteers have physical or mental disabilities. Our volunteers become healthier, happier, more confident and part of a supportive community of horticultural heroes.
We’re a one stop destination for everything our community needs to make beautiful, wildlife friendly natural spaces, stocking everything from trees to tiny alpines. Over the last 20 years we’ve seen the Centre thrive. Each year we welcome well over ten thousand people through our doors, as well as the diverse array of wildlife that calls the centre home. If you haven’t visited yet, come and see this urban paradise for yourselves.
Hulme Community Garden Centre provides enjoyment, sanctuary and a breath of fresh air to so many, but the current onsite facilities created limitations to what was possible. Through consultation with the community, we identified the main areas for improvement and more sustainable growth. These include, more comfortable indoor spaces for our visitors and volunteers, a new entrance, new toilets including baby changing facilities, a welcoming and warm cafe, a spacious shop and better office facilitates for our HCGC team.