In the Studio with Hoxton Gardenware

Once known as London’s ‘nursery district’, during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Hoxton in the city’s East End was filled with market gardens and plant sellers that supplied trees and flowers to the growing metropolis. Then a semi-rural area beyond the urban core, its clean air and open spaces made it ideal for cultivating plants and many horticultural businesses thrived. As the capital expanded during the Industrial Revolution, these nurseries gradually disappeared, replaced by housing and production, but the area’s green past remains a fascinating footnote in Hoxton’s history.

It’s that history that inspires the team at Hoxton Gardenware, a youth-led, not-for-profit enterprise producing small-batch terracotta plant pots using traditional studio pottery techniques. Facilitated by ceramic artist Aaron Angell, the project is based at his studio, called Troy Town, which sits on Hoxton Street, on the site where nurseryman and amateur biologist Thomas Fairchild first artificially hybridised a plant in 1717. “The space is rented from The Hoxton Trust, so we share a courtyard area with them, and they have a community garden directly opposite,” says potter Juliette Swindells, who heads up the Gardenware project. “There are always gardeners around, so it was a very organic decision to get young people involved, to make pots and then to sell them.”

With the aim of encouraging budding craftspeople to explore the world of ceramics, the scheme, which was launched just before Covid, offers training and paid opportunities for any local 18-24-year-olds who wish to apply. “Often internships, especially in the art or craft space are poorly paid, or not paid at all, which creates an accessibility issue as you can only really move into the area if you have extra support,” explains Juliette. “Ceramics can also be an expensive path to follow, especially at the beginning, so this program is about opening the practice up to a wider group and providing experience in all things pottery.”

An Aladin’s Cave of fascinating objects, the studio is packed with Aaron’s impressive body of sculptural work, as well as a plethora of pottery books, clay, glazes and Japanese tools. “Aaron is always looking to make the space available to the local community, and he runs classes and residencies too,” says Juliette. “Bearing in mind it’s in the heart of the city it feels like being in a beautiful shed on a farm somewhere. It’s a very calming space and a great learning environment.”

The Hoxton Gardenware vessels themselves, inspired by medieval, Roman and Victorian pottery, are thrown on a wheel using rough terracotta, which is fired at a lower temperature than other clays. “It’s quite rare to find a studio using terracotta inside London – most is made in the countryside, so we’re happy to be bringing it back,” she continues. “We produce various sizes - as the students learn, the pots get bigger. The pieces we’ve made for TOAST are slipware, and we use an ancient technique called slip trailing to decorate them with looped, abstract designs made with a runny clay solution. It takes a lot longer than other methods, so these pots are quite special.”

Profit from sales goes directly back into training, and since the inception of the scheme, students have secured jobs in pottery studios and bought their own wheels. “They’ve learned to throw, so that creates opportunities to become a technician or a teacher,” says Juliette. “Importantly, they’ve also seen how a pottery studio is run, how you market yourself and how you interact with people, and we get them involved in the selling side too. The chance to be paid to learn is very rare, and they pick up so many transferable skills. It can truly have an impact on the trajectory of these young people’s careers.”