Rowland Byass – Landscape Architect

Project: First Step Centre

Completion Date: October 2005

Location: Plaistow, East London
First Step is a residential Foyer for ‘at risk’ young people run by East Thames housing association. With the help of the Foyer’s residents and City Challenge volunteers, we remade the Foyer’s garden, a shaded narrow strip at the rear of a tall Victorian former nurses’ home, into a more appealing outdoor space.

At the sunny end of the garden, we made a deck on three levels for sitting and socialising. A fastigiated flowering cherry (Prunus ‘Umineko’) was planted to make the most of the narrow space and a half hexagon timber tree seat installed underneath. Flower borders, edged with cobbles set in cement, lined the boundary.