St James’s Church gardens

A CLERKENWELL resident is fighting the council to save St James’s Church gardens and Spa Fields from destruction.

Adva Shimshy has lived in Clerkenwell for eight years and walks her dogs in the green spaces every day. She has seen how they change with the arrival of one culprit.

Clerkenwell Design Week annually sets up shop in St James’s Church gardens and Spa Fields to showcase thousands of interior design products and projects. This year it runs from May 23-25.

The expo, which takes a week to set up and a week to take down, kills the grass, leaving it riddled with bald patches and unable to properly grow back because it uses large structures designed for concrete.

The same structures will be used this year; however, Islington Parks Service has maintained the only impact will be slightly yellowed grass.

But Ms Shimshy argues “there is no way” there will not be more damage.

“Spa Fields has been damaged beyond repair,” Ms Shimshy told the Tribune. “And they [Islington Council and Parks Service] basically refuse to acknowledge that the damage was caused by Clerkenwell Design Week.”

She added: “They [the council] let them do whatever they want for a fee. In order to meet their financial targets, they’re sacrificing our green spaces.”

The fee for the 2023 design week was £26,500 according to Andrew Hillier, area parks manager for Islington South.

An Islington Council spokesperson said this money would go “to the parks service and help pay for Islington’s parks”.

On March 31, Ms Shimshy launched a Change.org petition to “get Clerkenwell Design Week off our grass”.

At the time of writing, the petition had more than 200 signatures.

“It just shows that people do care about things like this,” said Ms Shimshy.

A Town Hall spokesperson said: “We’re talking with Clerkenwell Design Week about how best to protect grass at both sites, including arrangements before and after the events.

“We’re also trialling new ways to best protect grass, including changes to cutting, watering and aeration.”