Phoenix Farm in White City

Started in 2007, Phoenix Farm provides a learning resource for local schools, local community groups and offers volunteering opportunities for local residents. Comprised of glasshouses, polytunnels and a series of beds, fruit and vegetables of all descriptions are produced together with medicinal herbs, plants to attract wildlife, and edible flowers. The site is also home to rabbits, bees and chickens and has a wildlife pond. Phoenix Farm is managed by Hammersmith Community Gardens Association (HCGA), a local environmental charity set up by local residents in 1984, following their successful campaign to secure the future of Loris Road and Godolphin Road Community Gardens. HGCA now looks after six community gardens in the borough (Ravenscourt Park Glasshouses, Frank Banfield Park, Godolphin Community Garden, Peabody/Old Oak and Aisgill Community Hub) as well as gardens in Westminster and Kensington & Chelsea.

Phoenix Farm provides opportunities for local residents to do some hands on gardening and very successfully – the farm continues to win awards each year, including ‘Outstanding’ in the RHS London in Bloom competition and in 2017 a show garden created for the Hampton Court Flower Show won a Gold Medal. In addition to over 40 varieties of vegetable and herbs, there is a community orchard, soft fruits and wildlife area. The annual harvest festival attracts over 500 people who are able to see a demonstration of apple pressing, try lots of farm related activities and enjoy home-grown produce such as pumpkin soup, chutney and apple cake. The Farm is used by pupils from local schools for lessons across the curriculum and some classes have dedicated beds. The project also acts as a hub for other local primary schools that visit on a weekly basis and it hosts a full schedule of adult volunteers, family drop-ins, school visits and playschemes. The site is closed to the public but can be visited at one of its community events or drop-in volunteering sessions. Funding from Sam's Riverside Restaurant, John Lyon's Charity and Peabody supports Phoenix Farm's work.

Phoenix Farm abuts the Phoenix Fitness Centre and Janet Adgoke Swimming Pool and is adjacent to the Phoenix Academy Campus. The Academy is on the site of two earlier schools, Christopher Wren Boys' School and Hammersmith County Girls' School, which merged in 1982 to become one co-educational comprehensive that was called Hammersmith School. In 1994 this was relaunched as Phoenix High School, and in September 2016 became Phoenix Academy. Over the years, the school has gone through highs and lows, from being placed in Special Measures to becoming high up on the league tables. The headteacher who turned the school into a success, William Atkinson, was knighted in the Queen's Birthday Honours in 2008 for his 'services to education and community relations'. It was Sir William Atkinson who was instrumental in creating Phoenix Farm in 2007. His vision for a community farm and garden at Phoenix High School was realised through HCGA who built the garden, recruiting volunteers to help maintain it, running community events and getting school children involved. HCGA took over responsibility for Phoenix Farm in 2021.

The Phoenix Fitness Centre and Janet Adgoke Swimming Pool recalls the White City Lido that opened on 4 August 1923, designed by the Borough Engineer R Hampton Clucas. Costing £13,149, it took 60 unemployed men 6 months to build the 150 x 75ft pool, which had small lawns at both ends. It closed after the 1979 season and was converted into the indoor Janet Adegoke Leisure Centre in 1980. Janet Olufunmilayo Adegoke (1942-1987) was a British-Nigerian nurse and Labour politician. When she was elected Mayor of the Hammersmith & Fulham in 1987, she became the first Black woman to hold the position of mayor of a London borough.

Immediately to the east of Phoenix Farm is the LCC's White City Estate (q.v.), built in 1937-53 on part of the former White City Exhibition Grounds, which had flourished here from 1908 until 1914. The Grounds with their pavilions, exhibition halls, stadium and other amenities such as a railway and artificial waterways had been created for the Olympic Games held in London in 1908. The Franco-British Exhibition was the first of a series of international exhibitions held on the 140 acre site, which gained its name from the colour of the exhibition buildings, all painted white. The buildings were used for international exhibitions until WWI when they were requisitioned to accommodate troops, but later became neglected before eventually being demolished. In 1935 the LCC purchased 52 acres of the redundant land for its new White City Estate, planned to provide homes for 11,000 residents. Construction was interrupted by the outbreak of war and the estate was finally completed in 1953 with 35 blocks and 2,011 homes for around 8,885 residents. At the time the new estate was described as 'the largest and finest estate of flats which the council has yet built' (The Times, 21 July 1939) but by the early C21st it was regarded as 'a blighted area where nobody wants to live' (Evening Standard, 22 March 2004). The street names on the Estate reflect the former international exhibitions held here - Bloemfontein Road, India Way, Canada Way, Australia Road, Commonwealth Avenue. Although the LCC had reserved sites on the estate 'for 14 shops, an administrative building and possible schools, medical clinic, reading rooms, etc. and children's playgrounds', these did not materialise in the final estate. Some had heralded the estate for these 'new town' principles, but others criticised the 'soulless mechanism of the layout' (Architects' Journal) and the 'deadening utilitarian ranks' (Pevsner). In 1981 the estate's ownership transferred from the GLC to LB Hammersmith & Fulham. It is now within Hammersmith & Fulham's major regeneration project that aims to transform the White City area.