Covent Garden’s vertical park

Living wall to be revealed in a nod to Covent Garden’s history as a flower market

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The gateway to Covent Garden will be transformed into a ‘vertical park’ with a living wall covering over 1,500 square feet of the building facade on the corner of Long Acre and James Street. The wall will be revealed in September as part of a greening initiative to recreate the area’s garden heritage.

Varying tones of green will mix with red, pink and mauve in the wall, which has been designed so that points of interest are visible year round. The goal is to evoke Covent Garden’s colourful past as a flower market.

Re-greening Covent Garden

The living wall is the latest development in the re-greening of Covent Garden, which is already blooming thanks to over 100 flower crates and barrows around the Piazza, a nod to the market heritage of the area.

Elements of the award-winning RHS Chelsea Flower Show garden ‘500 Years of Covent Garden’, including 60-year-old apple trees, were installed on the Piazza in June to provide a summer terrace garden for visitors.

‘The introduction of a vertical park creates a world-class entrance to the Covent Garden estate and demonstrates our commitment to the greening of Covent Garden. The installation celebrates the heritage of the area as an orchard and Flower Market, and is a wonderful welcome to visitors of the estate.’

MICHELLE MCGRATH
Director, Capco

Improving air quality

Over 8,000 plants and 21 different species will be planted in a bid to refine the air quality, increase the area’s biodiversity, capture pollution particles and offer the beauty of a vertical park to Covent Garden, which attracts over 44 million customer visits a year.

The wall will be watered by a drip irrigation system which will be run on up to 80% rainwater harvesting, dependent on the weather and season.

Designed by experts at the living wall specialists Biotecture, who abseiled down the building’s façade to plant the living wall, the plants chosen have been selected with biodiversity in mind. They will provide for birds, bees and butterflies as well as improving air quality.

Click here to find out more about what’s on in Covent Garden.