St Margaret’s Park’s Bowling Green
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The history
In 2023, Edinburgh Leisure returned several disused bowling green venues to the City of Edinburgh Council, including the one in St Margaret’s Park. Since then, the Parks & Openspace team has been exploring ways to repurpose these areas for community use. Feedback from extensive public engagement highlighted key priorities: community growing space, sensory garden, tree planting, and additional seating.
The Consultation & Engagement Hub (survey closed 8 June 2024) received 193 responses, showing strong support for making the park more welcoming, accessible, and beneficial for both people and wildlife. You can access detailed information about the consultation on the Consultation Hub.
Following engagement with the local community, including Friends of St Margaret's Park and Corstorphine Primary School, several ideas were developed for how these spaces could be improved and re-integrated back into the park.
Since then, we have been exploring the next steps to take this work further. This includes a comprehensive review covering cost estimates for reopening facilities like the toilets and pavilion, as well as exploring options to activate these spaces in a way that benefits the community. We have been working with the community throughout this to ensure that we are aligning with their needs, and to agree priorities together.
In December 2024 we advertised expressions of interest for an organisation to partner with us to transform the bowling green.
We received wonderful ideas and applications how organisations could run this space, and extend our thanks to everyone who applied. The review panel, including liaisons from the community council and members of the Friends of St Margaret’s Park committee, selected Earth in Common as the preferred partner to move ahead with.
About Earth in Common
Earth in Common is an environmental charity based in Leith. It addresses food system issues, climate change, and social inequality. Formerly known as Leith Community Crops in Pots, they promote urban crofting to reclaim urban green spaces for community food growing and education.
Earth In Common runs regular volunteering sessions, and is currently in the process of setting up the new croft. Find out more here: Corstorphine Community Croft | Earth in Common
Funding
A total of £50,000 from the food-growing budget has been allocated to create the community growing area. We are also applying for additional funding to bring the full vision to life.
The Pavilion
The Pavilion will be used to support the community growing activities in the bowling green – a space for volunteers, storage, toilets, etc. We have recently completed drainage works to repair the plumbing system for the building, and other essential repairs are due to follow.