A Chartist Orchard
Project Partners:
Reappropriating fruit nomenclature.
A Chartist Orchard is a proposal for a new community orchard to create local synonyms for the fruit varieties to reflect the radical history of Kennington Park.
Traditional fruit nomenclature has many stories to tell about people and places. Land ownership and country estates are reflected in the naming of varieties. Local synonyms are common. For the Chartist Orchard, various fruit varieties have been renamed with local synonyms invented to reflect the rich history of the park.
Kennington Park (then Kennington Common) was the site of the 1848 Chartist 'monster rallys'. The Chartists were a working class movement for representative democracy. The People's Charter made six key demands for electoral reform and representation. In response to the Chartist rallies the Common was enclosed, and made into a Victorian park. In time, all but one of the Chartist's demands were adopted, (except for annual elections).
BeeUrban is a honeybee-centric social enterprise based in Kennington, South London, which aims to positively influence the urban environment through supporting local people and promoting positive, ecologically sound practice around urban greening, building, farming and particularly bee-keeping.
Proposal for Kennington Park, London,
45 fruit trees, signage
