2023 - October, Our news

Theofanis Andrews has been tirelessly supporting his local community for almost 30 years. He began transforming the communal garden of his apartment block in East Sheen a year after he moved there and has not stopped since.

Howorth House, comprising of 19 apartments, became Theofanis’s home in January 1995, when it was managed by The Richmond upon Thames Churches Housing Trust. He was extremely grateful to move to a secure home and to have a roof over his head after years of living in bedsitters on short term lets

Thankful for the new accommodation and the security it gave him, a year later Theofanis decided to develop the garden which he says was “one of the most neglected gardens ever.”

Since then, Theofanis has singlehandedly transformed the area around the building, and the garden won first prize in his landlord’s gardening competition in 2001. The property was then taken over by Paragon in 2007, which later became PA Housing.

 He has now been responsible for winning ten PA in Bloom competitions, as well as numerous Richmond in Bloom judging contests since 2002, culminating in being awarded Gold in 2019 by the Mayor of Richmond.

Earlier this year, Theofanis was further recognised for his continuous commitment to the community when he was awarded the Helping Hands award at the Richmond upon-Thames Community Heroes Awards.

Having been nominated by a local councillor, Theofanis was chosen as the winner for his “efforts to, in his own time, develop the garden landscapes around Howorth House in East Sheen, providing a beautiful and uplifting space for the community to enjoy, cultivating all types of interesting plants and sharing his gardening knowledge with the community.”

He says he was pleased to win the award, although Theofanis says he does not do the work for attention or acclaim. Rather, as a student of Classics, he quotes influential philosopher Swami Vivekananda: ‘When the lotus flower blooms, the bees come of their own.’

Theofanis, who moved to the UK from Cyprus in 1960, credits nearby Kew Gardens with the inspiration behind his fabulous garden.

In his earlier years in the UK, whilst struggling financially and semi-homeless, he says he spent many hours and days walking and passing the time at Kew Gardens in deep thought.

At that time Theofanis was also struggling to keep his Aikido school going, a school which featured on BBC1’s That’s Life programme, demonstrating his long-standing commitment to community activities, not reserved to gardening alone.

When he secured his flat at Howorth House, Theofanis says he returned to Kew Gardens with a notebook and pen, documenting his favourite plants and shrubs, and began cultivating his varied and unusual plant selection.

The rest, as they say, is history, and his string of accolades for serving his community followed. As well as being a place of beauty, Theofanis says that the garden at Howorth House is also a place of remembrance, with a plaque remembering Frank Clayton Howorth, First Chairman and Treasurer of Richmond upon Thames Churches Housing Trust, who the building was named after.

As well as continuing to keep fit and healthy by exercising, and of course, gardening most days, Theofanis also loves to read, and continues to study the Classics.

He says the garden work and planting is by no means finished, and that “there is a very long way to go yet before perfection is reached – if it ever can be reached.”