In 1982 a derelict, rubbish filled site was given to the project to be cultivated and developed. The local community worked together to clear, dig, build, plant and nurture the area. The garden invites people to become members, and when doing so they offer their time to maintaining the communal areas which are open to the public and participating in community events.

Culpeper Community Garden was set-up over twenty years ago to meet a need for open green space in an urban environment accessible to those who lived with no such area of their own. Culpeper was intended to be provide somewhere for children to learn to grow and care for plants and vegetables, as well as offering those with high levels of poverty and deprivation the chance to experience and work with a garden. It was named after the famous herbalist Nicholas Culpeper whose books were printed in nearby Clerkenwell.

People pay to become members of the garden; Culpeper