After some hassles with borrowing some space on a friends allotment I bit the bullet and started phoning round to see if I could find a local allotment of my own.... wonder of wonders we have one site in Oxford without a waiting list so I went along yesterday morning and was offered a choice of plots.... I took a not huge one which had the benefit of having been in continuous cultivation for over a hundred years (apparently) by an old guy who had taken it over from his grandfather fifty years ago.... He stopped last year and it looks like the back half was getting away from him before then, but at least the front half just needs a fork waving at it to get it up and running again.... I set straight to and got a 3m x3m bed dug through and completely weeded (and discovered some feral potatos) in a couple of hours and plan on getting up there again during the week and next weekend....
It also has a proper allotment shed ....
So if you're in Oxford and are looking for a plot there are still some spares at Redbridge......
chrisc