How to get a London allotment

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It’s not easy to find a slice of Eden in the middle of London. Those of us for whom the word allotment conjures up images of Arthur Fowler tilling the soil of Albert Square have a shock in store.

The humble allotment – created as a means of subsidy for workers in the 18th century – has now gone bourgeois. These days you’re as likely to find the natives, skinny latte in hand, extolling the virtues of biodynamic crop cultivation, as putting the world to rights over a cup of Yorkshire brew.

Waiting lists are as bloated as those of the most eligible public schools. "Allotment use has exploded over the past five years,” says Geoff Stokes of the National Society of Allotment and Leisure Gardeners.

For more information on how to get an allotment near you check out our table of available plots and council contacts

He says that, far from the traditional image of allotment holders as grubby old men in peaked caps, just 40 per cent are retired. What’s more, allotments are a new middle-class stomping ground (and a great networking opportunity). They combine today’s twin obsessions of burning calories and getting your five-a-day.

Medium-sized sites produce over two tonnes of cabbages every year. A standard 250 sq m patch can keep the average family supplied with vegetables all year round, cutting bills in the process.

Tom Moggach (pictured), thelondonpaper’s food critic and keen allotment aficionado, spent five years languishing on a waiting list before he was granted a plot by Hampstead Heath. But his patience finally bore fruit with a bumper crop this year.

“I love growing vegetables, and for years had my eye on a little secret plot near Highgate. I had all sorts of failures this year – the cabbages got eaten by slugs.  But I now have a delicious supply of crisp potatoes, fine runner beans, and wonderful apples and onions.”

First port of call for would-be allotmenteers is the local authority, who allocate and manage sites – even if they don’t actually own any.

K&C recommend trying your luck with another borough, although with 500-strong waiting lists in Camden, it’s unlikely you’ll strike it lucky nearby.  But Barnet and Bexley let interlopers onto their lists; and if you’re content to work the less popular of Bexley’s 36 sites, you might get in straight off.

Expect to pay £32.30 a year for the standard 250 sq m, or 10-pole plot, if you want to get with the lingo; or if that’s too daunting, start with a pint-sized 125 sq m. Patience is key.

“Waiting lists are appallingly long,” says Jack Dudley Swale of the London Allotments Network. “We can’t see people in the City ever getting plots. Islington’s horrendous, and it’s unlikely you’ll find somewhere in Hackney before the Olympics.”

If your local authority can’t help, contact the LAN, who are drawing up lists of applicants to give to the GLA.

Once you get a space, start simple with potatoes. Carrots and parsnips require weeding and thinning and are among the hardest crops to grow. Novices should expect to put in up to 15 hours a week; the more green-fingered can get away with less than three.

If you’re after organic munchies, beg, borrow or steal your way onto Camden’s waiting list for a plot at Branch Hill off Hampstead Heath – the only organic site in the borough, although the decade-long delay should put off all but the most determined eco-warriors.

Spa Hill, in Croydon, has a strong organic presence, but only admits people who live within 2,000m of the site – and even then, the waiting list is 80-strong.

If all else fails, Westminster Council says that if applicants found a viable patch, they may convert it.

How about that spot outside Parliament? Time to start lobbying!