Allotments as an Amenity Asset

Abstract

ALTHOUGH few will question the value of allotments, their frequent unsightliness is one of the chief reasons why there is so little public support for including them in town-planning schemes or otherwise making their tenure secure. Useful work has already been done by the National Allotments Society and the Society of Friends, but expenditure on outlay is necessarily restricted when the land may (after three months notice) be sold to a speculative builder. Lady Alien of Hurtwood discusses this problem in a booklet entitled “How Allotments could be made an Amenity Asset to the Community”. Constructive suggestions for the development of the allotment garden as an outdoor social centre are made, stress being laid on the necessity for well-considered planning of the land from the start, if possible in conjunction with other forms of social activity. An illustration is given of a suitable lay-out designed by the author herself, and sketches for a community centre building and hut units by William Tatton Brown are also included. The booklet (price 4d. post paid) may be obtained from The Housing Centre, 13 Suffolk Street, London, S.W.1.