Islington in Bloom 2025 Winners

Category	Placing	Name
Community Impact Award	Winner	Children of Brecknock School
Best Children’s Planting	1^st	Children of Robert Blair School
	2^nd	Children of Pooles Park Primary School
	3^rd	Hargrave Park School Gardening Club
Best Improvement	Winner	Jacqueline Bright
Best Newcomer	Winner	Better Lives
Best Window Box	1^st	Patricia Jordan
	2^nd	David Heath
	3^rd	Elizabeth Perry
Best Tree Pit	1^st	Lizzie Boyle
	2^nd	Julian Davison
	3^rd	Jean Shaoul
Best Balcony	1^st	Oliver Hymans
	2^nd	Tim Bacon
	3^rd	Rafael Montero and John Sloboda
Best Edible Garden	1^st	Mildmay Community Food Project
	2^nd	Octopus Community Plant Nursery
	3^rd	Nilu Sapugoda
Best Blooming Business	1^st	The Café at 91 (Holland Walk, Elthorne Estate)
	2^nd	Arsenal Station Staff and Residents
	3^rd	Angel Central Shopping Centre
Best Front Garden	1^st	Anne Monaghan
	2^nd	Chris Carter
	3^rd	Sanja Milankovic
Best Hidden Gem	1^st	Anita Gracie
	2^nd	Julia Coyne
	3^rd	Jasmine Maylanchi
Best Container Garden	1^st	Louise Souter
	2^nd	Romell Slater
	3^rd	Franck Maze
Best Park	1^st	The Friends of St. John’s Garden
	2^nd	The Green Guardians
	3^rd	Thornhill Square Gardens
Best Estate	1^st	Highbury Quadrant Estate Nature Gardens
	2^nd	Wedmore Estate Garden
	3^rd	Greenman Street Community Garden
Best Street	1^st	Canonbury Energy Garden
	2^nd	Rees Street
	3^rd	Yeshi and Jolene Restaurants (Hornsey Road)
Best Community Garden	1^st	Sunnyside Community Gardens
	2^nd	Friends of King Henry’s Walk Gardens
	3^rd	Olden Community Garden
Nancy Pattenden Wildlife Award	Winner	Olden Community Garden
Best Ward	Winner	Barnsbury Ward

https://www.islington.media/news/help-get-islington-blooming

The Pattenden Wildlife Award

Nancy died on the 15th February 2011 just three weeks after her husband, Brian. Many new members and other people from across the borough may not be aware that it was Nancy who founded Islington Gardeners towards the end of the 1970s.

In the 1950s, Nancy and Brian, both young qualified architects found a house in Halton Road in preparation for their marriage in 1957. They joined the Islington Society, whose aims were to preserve Islington Borough’s many outstanding architectural gems. With great enthusiasm, Nancy embraced the role of encouraging its citizens to cultivate and above all enjoy their gardens.

Singlehandedly, she ran the first competitions: from the advertising, through judging to the presentation of certificates. All over the Borough her voice could be heard praising; advising and suggesting improvements to gardens, window boxes, forgotten areas, estates, communal homes. By the late 1970s membership of the Islington Society had grown to the point where the Society felt that in order to spread interest throughout the whole Borough, Islington Gardeners should form its own committee and thus become independent of Islington Society.

Before long, and with the help of visits to famous gardens, winter talks by experts and plant sales these gardeners were rolling off the Linnean double names of plants and were becoming experts in their own right.

They had recognised Nancy’s fairness in judging and responded to her warmth and generosity.

When the new committee took over, Nancy felt free to pursue her own passions, one of which was the creation of a scented garden for the blind. She and Pam Millward (chair of IG during the 1990s) had this garden constructed in the garden of an old peoples’ home off Seven Sisters Road. Other interests, such as community gardens and the Borough’s trees entailed forging links with Islington Council’s experts in the Parks and Gardens department. With her unaffected good humour and natural friendliness she found friends instead of officials with whom she could share advice.

Nancy had a wicked sense of humour, was a Morris Dancer and was a passionate advocate for the preservation of wildlife.

We decided to name the wildlife award that Islington Gardeners sponsors within Islington in Bloom after her to ensure that her legacy lives on.

Islington Gardeners became involved with Islington in Bloom at the beginning of their involvement with the In Bloom Competitions at the beginning of this century. It has been an absolute pleasure and a very rewarding experience to be involved with something that makes Islington a brighter and better Borough for everyone that lives here.