FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 26.6.25 

The national homelessness and health charity Pathway has relocated its RHS Chelsea award winning show garden to Plymouth. Pathway has donated the garden to the Shekinah Centre in Plymouth where an official opening event is being held at 2pm on Friday 4th July.    

Grand opening, the Chelsea Flower Show garden that’s changing lives  

  • Pathway, the UK’s leading homelessness and health charity, and the Shekinah Centre in Plymouth are holding a ribbon-cutting event on Friday 4th July, to mark the opening of the award winning RHS Chelsea Flower Show garden donated by Pathway to the Plymouth based homelessness charity.  
  • The garden will be opened by Alex Bax, Pathway CEO, and Pathway volunteers with personal experience of homelessness whose insights inspired the garden designed by Allon Hoskin and Robert Beaudin of Modular.  
  • Acclaimed by leading journalists and garden experts as a garden that’s changing lives, the Pathway Garden will provide a place of rest and recovery for people being supported out of homelessness to better health by the Shekinah Centre and the Health Inclusion team (HIPP) supported by Pathway at University Hospitals, Plymouth. 
  • Working collaboratively with organisations across Plymouth, the expert homelessness team at University Hospitals Plymouth, part of Pathway’s national network of hospital homelessness teams, and the Shekinah Centre demonstrate the transformative impact of joined-up integrated care networks which are critical to tackling homelessness and extreme health inequalities. 
  • This deep collaborative working is built on the collective efforts and support of key partners, including Adelaide St Surgery and Primary Care, University Hospitals Plymouth (UHP), Livewell Southwest (LSW), Plymouth City Council (PCC), NHS Devon, and the Plymouth Alliance. Their collaboration reflects the strength of a united health and social care system working together for a common goal. 

Created by leading garden design company Modular and sponsored by grant-giving charity Project Giving Back, Pathway hosted the show garden at the 2025 RHS Chelsea Flower Show to raise awareness of the health challenges faced by people experiencing homelessness and highlight its work to tackle homelessness and health inequalities. 

The thought-provoking garden, which won the RHS Chelsea 2025 Environmental Award, drew its inspiration from people with personal experience of homelessness who were closely involved in every aspect of the garden’s creation, working hand in hand with the garden designers, Allon Hoskin and Robert Beaudin of Modular, to bring this vision to life for the RHS Chelsea Flower Show. The garden’s design represents the networks of support for people facing homelessness created by Pathway. 

Working within and alongside the NHS, Pathway works to find sustainable solutions to homelessness and health inequalities by building connections in care and health systems to strengthen a collective response to homelessness.  The Pathway Garden showcases the integrated care networks and specialist hospital teams created by the charity to improve access to healthcare for people experiencing homelessness, and to support them out of homelessness.  

Pathway selected the Shekinah Centre in Plymouth to be the recipient of The Pathway Garden in recognition and celebration of their vitally important work as a key partner in the network of services across Plymouth supporting people out of homelessness, including the expert Health Inclusion team at University Hospitals Plymouth, supported by Pathway. Their provision of holistic, compassionate and expert joined up care is critical to improving the health of some of most excluded people in society, saving lives and saving the NHS money.  

The garden will be officially opened at the Shekinah Centre at 2pm on Friday 4th July. The ribbon will be cut by Pathway volunteers whose personal journeys out of homelessness inspired the design and who worked hand in hand with the garden designers on the project. Alex Bax, Pathway CEO, will address leaders from across the city of Plymouth and the community gathered for event. 

Alex Bax. Pathway CEO, said: 

“Gardens have always been spaces for healing and recovery, whether for individuals or entire communities. We are delighted that the legacy of our RHS Chelsea show garden will be for it to be enjoyed as a place of recovery and sanctuary by people being given expert help at the Shekinah Centre, while also standing as a reminder of the profound health inequalities faced by people experiencing homelessness. We chose Plymouth and the Shekinah Centre in recognition of Plymouth’s commitment as a city to improving care for people experiencing homelessness.”   

John Hamblin, Shekinah CEO, said: 

“The Pathway Garden celebrates the journeys of those rebuilding their lives and health with dignity and purpose. Our partnership with Pathway truly reflects what Shekinah is all about – working collaboratively across the community to help bring real change to people’s lives.” 

Notes for editors: 

  1. Contacts for media enquiries: 

2.   Interviews can be arranged with:  

  • Pathway’s Chief Executive, Medical Director and Director of Policy  
  • Shekinah Centre representatives 
  • Clinicians from the Health Inclusion Pathway, Plymouth (HIPP) 
  • The garden designers 

3.   Pathway’s press pack about the Chelsea Pathway Garden is available here: https://www.pathway.org.uk/chelsea2025/rhs-chelsea-2025-press-pack/ 

4. Project Giving Back (PGB) is a unique grant-making charity that provides funding for gardens for good causes at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show. PGB was launched in May 2021 in response to the Covid-19 pandemic and its devastating effects on UK charitable fundraising – effects that have since been exacerbated by the cost of living crisis. Find out more at www.givingback.org.uk.    

5. The Health Inclusion Pathway Plymouth (HIPP) works across the hospital and community to support patients in Derriford Hospital or at risk of admission.  The service is commissioned by NHS Devon and is a collaboration between University Hospitals Plymouth, Livewell Southwest, Adelaide St Surgery, Plymouth City Council and the Plymouth Alliance. HIPP provides integrated health care for people experiencing homelessness in the city and neighbouring areas and is supported by Pathway and using Pathway’s national model.