This article examines the development of allotment gardens in the northern English city of York at the start of the twentieth century. Using archive material and newspaper reports the role of the allotment gardens within wider issues of urban social reform is explored. Through Giddens’s theory of structuration, the manner in which relationships between citizens and the City Corporation of York developed is investigated. In this manner, the place of allotment gardens as a means of understanding wider urban life in Britain can be reexamined. Whilst allotment gardens have only partially featured in studies of civic reform, identity and governmentality, their place as a central feature of working class life in Britain demands that a greater focus of attention should be placed on these plots of land.