Our Story
Three local families took ownership of Babylon in June 2023, breathing new life into the space and creating a welcoming place for the local community.
Babylon is a destination on Ashdown Forest, a place to meet up with friends, enjoy some delicious food and be inspired by the beautiful plants in our nursery. You can also browse our home & lifestyle areas and enjoy one of our regular events, and if you’re looking for a location for a celebration or event then we can help.
A potted history of Babylon
First garden centre on this site
Sid Lake opened ‘Farm Gate Sales’ which specialised in geraniums and pelogoniums. Sid also built the greenhouse on our site which at the time was the the largest single span glass structure of its type in the country!
Renamed to Ashdown Forest Garden Centre
New owners advertised on television and the garden centre became very successful.
Airmans Grave memorial
Jack Smith (who worked at the garden centre) was instrumental in building the Airmans Grave stone memorial and probably used plants from the nursery.
Pools winner purchases the site
‘Mrs Keys’ purchases the site and splashes out on new fixtures such as the Windsor Lanterns that you can see dotted around our site.
The Beasleys
New owners kept horses on the site and made the most of the direct access to Ashdown Forest.
Compost creation
The Bartrops purchased the site and created and sold their own compost on site.
The Dutch Barn was built
Another new owner for the site. Improvements were made including building the ‘Dutch Barn’ which housed the first restaurant on site.
Babylon was born!
Bought by three friends and renamed from Ashdown Forest Garden Centre to Babylon. The journey continues…
Meet the team
Alex Von Riebech
Alex is one of the chefs here at Babylon. He was the Chef proprietor of The Limetree Kitchen (the top rated restaurant in Lewes) and has a passion for creating delicious food with a fantastic attention to detail.
Rachael Collins
Rachael is our head of horticulture here at Babylon and is RHS certified with over ten years experience working in a wide range of horticultural fields. She has a passion for sustainable horticulture and what this means in a practical sense for gardens and gardeners.
Simon Bomford
Simon is the friendly face of our front-of-house team! He’s responsible for ensuring all our customers have the best experience here at Babylon.