London’s Pocket Parks: Calthorpe Community Garden, WC1

This community park and allotments on Grays Inn Road is a legacy of campaigning to prevent an office block from being built here.
Since the 19th century, the site had been occupied by W Cubitt and Co, builders, for a large timber workshop. By the 1940s, the building was a refrigerator manufacturer and had a walkway linking to some houses that used to sit on the corner of the road, presumably being used for offices.
The factory and the corner houses were badly damaged during WW2, and the land cle