Closing the Green Gap
Friday 1 August, 6.30 - 11 pm
Lighthouse Project Space, Unit D North Level 1, New England House, Brighton, BN1 4GH
Closing the Green Gap with Tayshan Hayden-Smith
Date: Friday 1 August 2025
Event: 6.30 - 11 PM
Location: Lighthouse Project Space, Unit D North Level 1, New England House, Brighton, BN1 4GH (map)
Tickets: Pay as you feel
Join Tayshan Hayden-Smith, founder of Grow to Know, for an evening of conversation, community, and music as we celebrate the launch of Closing the Green Gap— a campaign rooted in collective action, environmental justice, and the power of nature to bring people together.
Together, we’ll explore how accessible green spaces can strengthen community bonds, deepen our connection to the environment, support mental wellbeing, and create opportunities for healing, resistance, and joy. This is a space to reflect, imagine, and connect - with one another and with the land around us.
Closing the Green Gap was born from grassroots resilience in the wake of the Grenfell Tower fire in 2017, when Tayshan turned to guerrilla gardening beneath the Westway as a form of personal and collective healing. What began as an act of hope has grown into a wider movement through Grow to Know, a non-profit organisation using nature and community-centred campaigns to tackle systemic inequalities and inspire lasting change.
This evening invites everyone to be part of the conversation - and the movement.
The event is part of a week-long residency at our Project Space, where Lighthouse will host Tayshan Hayden-Smith.
About the artist
Born and raised in Ladbroke Grove, West London, Tayshan Hayden-Smith was playing professional football in Austria and Cyprus when the Grenfell Tower fire in 2017 changed everything for him and his community. In the aftermath, Tayshan returned home and turned to guerrilla gardening beneath the Westway as a way to process grief and bring solace to his neighbourhood. What began as a personal act of healing quickly grew into a form of community activism, rooted in care, resistance, and regeneration.
In 2019, he founded Grow to Know – a non-profit organisation born out of this grassroots response. From it came Closing the Green Gap, a campaign dedicated to tackling environmental and social challenges through community-led, nature-based projects. The campaign begins its work in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea – one of London’s most socially unequal boroughs – and drives for equal access to green space as a matter of justice and collective wellbeing.
CODE OF CONDUCT
We are committed to providing a safe, inclusive, supportive environment for all. We ask that everyone follow our code of conduct.
ACCESSIBILITY
This event will be held on the ground floor, level access, of Lighthouse Project Space, Unit D North Level 1, New England House, Brighton, BN1 4GH (map)
We have step-free access just to the left of our space. The step-free ramp is 1 metre wide, after the ramp you reach a blue door please use the 'Lighthouse' doorbell, one of the team will come to let you in and you will then go through a door that is 34 in / 86.5cm wide and after that another door in to the space that is 33.5 in / 85cm wide. There is an accessible toilet in the space on the same floor. We have one accessible parking space that must be booked in advance. For further information email info@lighthouse.org.uk or call 01273 647197.
Watch our video on the step-free access at Lighthouse Project Space below. We are fundraising to adapt our entrance, so that everyone enters our space through the same door.
PHOTOGRAPHY & VIDEO DURING EVENT
Please note, that this event will be photographed/filmed. If you prefer not to be photographed please speak to a member of the Lighthouse team. The photographs and film we capture at our events are used for marketing and promotional purposes for our programme only and are stored securely.
Funders
