Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) Urban Show, Manchester
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Thu 18 Apr 2024 - Sun 21 Apr 2024
An abundance of nature will arrive soon at a cavernous former railway yard and station and Royal Mail distribution centre, close to Piccadilly Station. The very first urban show the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) has put on will take place at Depot Mayfield, Manchester on 18 – 21 April 2024.
The RHS Urban Show is aimed at anyone who lives in a town or city but still likes to nurture and cultivate flowers and plants, especially in indoor-living spaces, balconies and roofs.
Courtesy of the RHS
Helena Pettit, Director of Gardens & Shows said: “
With over 80% of the UK population living in towns and cities, the new show will enable more urban dwellers to garden, especially where access to green spaces can be limited.”
There will be talks and workshops on how to create and care for an indoor garden, including ones on how to build a Terrarium (a mini greenhouse). A riot of houseplants and other exhibits will weave amongst the concrete floors, exposed brick, metalwork and iron struts of the Depot.
There will be a pub garden for thirsty visitors. Pubs and their patrons will also have the chance to nominate their much-loved watering holes as a new home for the garden, specially designed by Emma Tipping. The competition is being run in association with the
Manchester Evening News (MEN) . Entrants need to demonstrate why their area needs a beautiful pub garden, and how it will serve as a community hub.
The burst of Spring in the city at Depot Mayfield, follows on from the opening of
RHS Garden Bridgewater - the 154-acre former site of Worsley New Hall - in May 2021, the country's fifth national garden.
Glow illuminations at RHS Garden Bridgewater. Neil Hepworth. Courtesy of the RHS.
Another former railway structure which has become a platform for nature is
Castlefield Viaduct , which the National Trust converted into a 'green sky park'. The new visitor attraction first opened in July 2022. It now includes a new workshop space, developed in partnership with Sow the City, to support mental health and wellbeing.
The 330-metre steel viaduct was constructed in the early 1890s by the same engineers - Heenan and Froude - who created Blackpool Tower. For 77 years it bore the weight of heavy rail traffic rattling in and out of the Great Northern Warehouse.
Environmental and psychological health and well-being is also a key part of the Urban Show. The influence horticulture has on interior design, art, wellness and sustainability will be explored.
The RHS website notes that
'by 2050 Manchester is predicted to have a climate comparable to Montevideo, Uruguay. As well as the environmental impact urban greening, there is also the positive effect being close to nature has on our mental and physical wellbeing'. Drawing on a report by the
Foresight Factory and Oxford Economics , it notes that integrating gardening into urban spaces would off-set extreme heat - '
green roof temperatures can be 15 – 20° cooler than conventional roofs'.
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for more information and tickets
Depot Mayfield is a 10,000 capacity venue in Manchester’s historic former railway station. The site was transformed in 2019 into a multi-use space for arts, music, industry and culture in the city centre.
Depot Mayfield 11 Baring Street, Manchester, M1 2PY
Freedom from Torture Garden; A Sanctuary for Survivors, Sanctuary Garden, designed by John Warland and Emma O'Connell for the RHS Chelsea Flower Show. Courtesy of the RHS.
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280079 - 2024-03-09 19:22:26