The Old Moat Garden Centre

The Old Moat Garden Centre is a social enterprise and wellbeing environment in Epsom, supporting people experiencing mental ill health through horticulture, retail, café activities, training and participation in a supportive working community.

As Project Lead for Architecture for Humanity London, Kenneth led the architectural work through RIBA Stages 0–3, developing proposals to make the garden centre more accessible, functional and welcoming for service users, volunteers, staff and visitors.

The project involved refurbishing and reorganising the café and garden centre, relocating polytunnels, extending the glasshouses for retail, improving vehicle access and reconfiguring the car park. A further phase explored new timber buildings for office, training and education on underused parts of the site, with landscaping, cycle parking, permeable paving and sustainable drainage.

Central to the project was the relationship between the built environment, mental health and wellbeing: how architecture could support training, social interaction, confidence-building and participation. The improvements opened in January 2018.