“E very builder or workman that comes here says ‘I’ve never seen anything like it’,” Fiona Mitchell, says, standing in what was once a disused alleyway in Levenshulme, in Manchester, and is now a thriving community garden. Mitchell, 50, who works at a university, and Jackie Austin, 75, a retired lollipop lady, transformed this alley during lockdown. Now there are flowers, and herbs for neighbours to use in their cooking; there is a trampoline, football net and dartboard for local children; a water and food station for the alley’s resident cats; and a barbecue for the use of the community.
At night, the ginnel twinkles with the light of thousands of multicoloured solar-powered fairy lights that come on at dusk, giving the alley a magical quality. And while other inner-city ginnels – some only a few hundred yards away – give off unpleasant summer smells, wafting out of ripped bin bags or from piles of rotting food, here the overpowering smell is the sweet scent of lilies, their blooms bright pink and yellow. For these neighbours, it was about building a sense of community.
Austin was born in a house on the street, and she now lives in one a few doors down. “I’ve been in the avenue 75 years, and when I was young we all used to sit outside and bring sandwiches out, and coffees,” she said. “We wanted to get a community started.
” When they set out, waist-high weeds were growing down the alley. Once they’d cleared them, Austin’s husband, John, who was t.