Black Mary Project

What is The Black Mary Project?

A project  bringing together global-majority artists and communities to create an imaginative healing garden and festival centreing wellness, new artistic commissions, talks and music. The Project is inspired by Mary Woolaston aka Black Mary who, legend has it, kept a healing well in 17th Century Kings Cross. Due to the lack of care in recording historic working-class Black  lives, Mary Woolaston remains a shadowy figure although she is clearly mentioned in some historic sources. Guided by Artistic Director Gaylene Gould, artists and the community from Calthorpe Community Gardens  will work together to invoke Mary's memory and reimagine her well, blurring speculative fiction, historic fact and contemporary stories.

Why now?

At one time, London boasted its own  public healing wells and spas,  places where the rich and poor could rest, play and get well together. The memory of such places have long been forgotten at a time when we need public healing spaces more than ever. The pandemic claimed thousands of lives and now the survivors face punishing economic realities. The Black Mary Project is designed to explore what such a space might look for London drawing on the rich healing wisdoms that the global people of this city carry.

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What will we be able to see and do and when?

On June 28th 2025 a new permanent artwork will be unveiled at Calthorpe Community Garden in honour of Mary Wollaston as part of the one-day Black Mary’s Pleasure Garden Festival. 

The stone sculpture is created by carver  Marcia Bennett-Male, the only Black woman stone carver in the UK. The artwork has been supported by the Mayor of London Untold Stories Fund,

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The Black Mary’s Pleasure Garden festival will honour the history of Pleasure Gardens that grew up around the old healing wells by imagining one that Mary might have held.
 

Led  by Black and global majority contemporary artists and the community, the Pleasure  Garden will bring people together for connecting conversations, play, reflection, dancing  and fun.

A sequence of rituals, performances, workshops, care spaces, food, dancing and an immersive installation,  will bring us  together as a community.

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From September 2025 the Black Mary Healing Tour led by community researcher Emanuela Aru will continue. This special tour will introduce participants to Mary's landscape as well as to each other.​