About Us

Mission

At The Scrubbery, our mission is helping people to help. We believe meaningful change begins by helping one person at a time, equipping individuals with the tools, confidence, and support to make a difference in their own communities. Through “the sum of the littles”, everyone doing a small amount, we create lasting impact. Because when each of us contributes what we can, however modest, those small acts grow into something extraordinary

Origin

The Scrubbery began in January 2020 at the very start of the COVID-19 pandemic, when Rosie Taylor-Davies, alerted by her NHS doctor daughter’s difficulty finding well-fitting scrubs, began researching and developing a practical pattern that met clinicians’ needs. With national shortages looming, Rosie launched a volunteer sewing effort under the charitable arm of Parish Action in the Parish of Putney, cutting fabric and assembling sewing kits in St Mary’s Church Putney to meet urgent requests from local hospitals. These beginnings quickly gained momentum as more volunteers joined, driven by a shared desire to support frontline health workers with much-needed protective garments.

From those first makes, the project grew into a coordinated hub based in South West London, with more than 200 volunteers, from teenagers to retirees, producing scrubs, masks, laundry bags, scrub hats and much more for NHS hospitals, GP practices, care homes and vaccination clinics across London and beyond. Early successes included tens of thousands of sewn items distributed to facilities such as Charing Cross, Chelsea and Westminster, St George’s and King’s College hospitals, and bespoke productions for specific needs in clinical settings.

As the pandemic evolved, so did The Scrubbery’s work. We expanded our impact to include wellbeing bags for exhausted healthcare staff, camouflage netting repurposed from fabric off-cuts for use in Ukraine, quilts and comforting items for children, and broader humanitarian aid. Our advocacy extended to engaging with NHS procurement and government voices about more sustainable uniform practices, bringing practical frontline insight to systemic discussions about uniform design and supply.

In the years since, we have supplied tens of thousands of medical garments and related items, mobilised volunteer makers, supported Duke of Edinburgh Award participants, and developed deep partnerships locally and internationally. Through these efforts, what began as a response to crisis has become a sustained movement of practical, compassionate, volunteer-powered making, driven by community, skill-sharing and a commitment to meeting real needs wherever they arise.

Visit Us

Oasis Academy
Lower Richmond Road
Putney
London, SW15 1LY

Visits by appointment only, please contact us to arrange a time.

Acknowledgements

Some images on the site by kind permission of Rick Findler at Story Picture Agency and Broni Lloyd Edwards.