The Harington Scheme

The Harington Scheme grew out of discussions in the Highgate Society's Environment Committee in 1978, prompted by the threat of development to a plot of derelict land owned by Islington Health Authority behind Highgate High Street. It was their view that this land could be better used to serve local needs in the community and as a result, in 1980, the Harington Scheme was established here, the first horticultural training facility of its kind in London. The name it was given reflects the two local authorities who supported the project, Haringey and Islington. The Volunteer Society was set up to take the project forward, chaired by Dame Geraldine Aves with Gwen Dain as Honorary Secretary, and the plot of land was leased from Islington Health Authority. Volunteers then cleared the site of its waist-high nettles and basic utilities were installed for staff and trainees. Funding was raised to carry out these works and to pay salaries of a manager and 2 supervisors to oversee training. 

In 1979 the Harington Scheme gained charitable status and in August 1980 the first 15 trainees arrived. At the same time The Friends of Harington was set up, providing active support; many members of the local community were, and continue to be, actively involved. The Manpower Services Commission and other statutory bodies supported the Scheme, whose stated aim was to advance the education, training and social development of young people aged 16 - 25 years with learning difficulties, learning disabilities, behavioural difficulties or mental health needs. In 1990 the Scheme contracted into the North London Training and Enterprise Council, although this only provided part of the funding needed for each trainee so fund-raising was also required. The Scheme has continued to keep pace with new developments in national training and enterprise schemes. When the government set up the new Learning & Skills Councils in 2000 this brought new challenges and funding arrangements. At that time a drop in young learners applying to Harington coincided with a small increase in over-25 year-olds funded through JobCentre Plus, which triggered a 2-year development strategy resulting in Harington's positively received Adult Learning Inspectorate Report in 2003. As a result the charity's Memorandum and Articles were amended to reflect the inclusion of adults as well as young people. The majority of learners still come from North London, and the Scheme continues to provide employability training, life skills, and horticultural and retail training, for a more rewarding and independent life.

Highgate remained rural well into the C20th with a number of plant nurseries remaining on the land to the north of the High Street. The site of the Harington Scheme garden was at one time agricultural land and later a walled garden. From OS maps, the walled garden appears to date from the C19th, but it was later within the curtilage of Furnival House, which was built in 1916-19 by the Prudential Assurance Company. Furnival House is significant for providing purpose-built accommodation for its female staff at a time when accommodation for emerging groups of women in cities was being defined, and reflecting the attention to staff welfare to which the Prudential Assurance Company was particularly committed. In 1928 Furnival House became a Nurses Home for Whittington Hospital, and more recently it has been converted into luxury apartments, although the NHS continues to own the Walled Garden. In 1985 the Harington Scheme and its strong base of supporters saw off a potential threat of closure when Islington District Health Authority decided not to renew the lease as it considered developing the land.

The architect appointed to design the new facilities for horticultural training in 1978 was Tim Ronalds, whose first building, nicknamed the 'Temple' for its classical columns, was built to house the Scheme's initial activities and main office. His second Temple in the Walled Garden, the classroom, replaced an old shed that once stabled the donkey that pulled the mower for the Nurses Home. Mencap funded the building of a greenhouse in 1980. A series of photographs in Historic England's Archives taken in 1980 by renowned photographer John Gay (1909-1999), who lived in Cholmeley Crescent, show the garden, greenhouse, and trainees at work (https://historicengland.org.uk/images-books/photos/item/AA068064). 

In 1982 Harington Gardeners was set up under the umbrella of the Scheme as a subsidiary income-generating initiative, to help provide further employment experience for students after they had finished their training. Getting trainees into employment in horticulture but also other work, such as retail, remains a key goal for the Scheme. Harington Gardeners' Assistant Gardeners, who are usually former trainees, are offered paid employment with the company and the chance to develop their gardening skills. Their client base early on included planting in the Mayor's Garden at the Whittington Hospital, lime trees in The Grove as well as tending private gardens. As the Scheme expanded it outgrew its initial buildings and on 17 July 1990 a new building for the Harington Gardeners was opened by Stephen Dorrell, then Junior Health Minister, at 55a Cholmeley Park. Designed once more by Tim Ronalds, its site across the road from Furnival House was a leftover corner of land next to new sheltered housing built by Circle 33 Housing Trust. Haringey Planning Department granted permission to use the land for Harington's new building, leasing it at a peppercorn rent. Haringey Council also assisted Harington in securing funding for the building, which provides offices, a mess room, a changing room and stores, and was described by Ronalds as 'evoking the spirit of a greenhouse'.

Eventually a fourth building designed by Tim Ronalds was added to the Scheme's facilities, containing a practical training workspace, social space and mess facilities, lavatories and storage. Funding to achieve this was raised from the Urban Fund and the Peabody Trust as well as from the local community and through a general appeal. External levels were reorganised to give wheelchair access, with ramps formed to the plots in the garden. The Harington garden is used for a wide variety of education and all-year-round horticulture learning activities, and the nursery produce is on sale to the public. Students are taught in the classroom as well as learning practical skills in the gardens, where they grow and harvest plants, vegetables and herbs.

From early days Harington trainees and gardeners have entered local horticultural competitions such as the Highgate Horticultural Society Shows, winning numerous prizes. In 2001 Harington won a silver medal at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show for a Courtyard Garden, constructed by trainees and staff and designed by Caroline Simpson, the Scheme's Finance Officer, also a garden designer in her own right. They regularly run plant stalls locally, participating in events such as The Fair in the Square around Pond Square (q.v.). Harington students have also undertaken work experience and training outside the Scheme's garden such as at Highgate Cemetery (q.v.), where students assisted the cemetery's grounds staff in 2024.

Cholmeley Park, formerly a country lane, is named after Sir Roger Cholmeley, one of the wealthy C16th landowners in the area, who lived in Highgate and farmed land that later became Waterlow Park (q.v.). By a bequest in 1565 Cholmeley founded a charitable school here for 40 poor children from Highgate, Holloway, Hornsey, Finchley and Kentish Town to be taught at virtually no cost. Cholmeley's school later became Highgate School. The modernist blocks of Cholmeley Lodge, which replaced a C19th mansion of the same name in the 1930s, overlooks the Harington garden.