The Great Green Wall Hunt: The story so far

My favourite find so far - part of Edgware Road station (Bakerloo line) on Marylebone Road.
The wall was installed to help reduce PM10 air pollution and is being monitored by Imperial College.  

It's a while since I announced I was embarking on a Great Green Wall Hunt. It's been great fun and is still a work in progress.

When I started I thought I'd just look at living walls, i.e. the stop-you-in-your-tracks installations like the one I saw at the Athenaeum Hotel last year. However, I soon realised that would ignore numerous other examples of green walls that are of value - look out for a post on the types of green wall coming soon.

I've uncovered a whole host of benefits attributed to green walls along the way, worthy of a post to itself too. Meanwhile, here's a brief summary of my findings thus far...

Main picture: Inside Anthropologie on Regent Street.
Top to Bottom: Double Tree by Hilton Hotel; Mermaid Theatre, Blackfriars; and St Mary's Hospital, Paddington. 

There are a lot more of them than I thought

A quick Google of Green Walls returns a lot of websites, which include the two main providers of living walls in the UK. They show dozens of examples in their online portfolios, and they're not just confined to London. Oswestry, Birmingham, Surbiton, Leicester, Leeds, Slough and Bristol are just a few of the other locations where they can be found.

I've confined my hunt to London so far, as I can combine it with other reasons for visiting the big smoke. Therefore, all my examples are from there, though I hope to see the one in Bristol soon. Their increased presence in London is partly due to the City of London actively encouraging their installation, plus there is some funding available via the Mayor's £20 million Air Quality Fund.

I've also found indoor examples aren't confined to Canada, and living walls aren't the preserve of public spaces. However, the latter tend to be in private houses, so I haven't had the opportunity to view any of these yet. The link takes you to an example installed in a dental practice in Exeter.

Some of the green wall surprises. Main picture: At the back of the public loos at St. Luke's Gardens, Chelsea.
From top to bottom right: Royal Vauxhall Tavern, on the site of the former Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens;
artificial green wall at the Wellness Centre, St James Court Hotel; a green wall photo at a Crossrail construction site.
Bottom left and centre: temporary green walls at Crossrail construction at Finsbury Circus; and outside Vauxhall station. 

There are plenty of other surprises (to me anyway)

It's good to have my pre-conceptions overturned by the reality. Living walls aren't just the preserve of high-end properties, such as hotels, boutique shops, or showrooms for upmarket cars. Some are in quite humble places, such as at the back of a public loo in a park, and on a pub in Vauxhall.

I've found examples of temporary green walls, such as those at the Crossrail construction site at Finsbury Circus and some portable ones in Vauxhall. Both Vauxhall examples were totally unexpected as I hadn't seen anything about them online before I saw them.

Sadly some of the temporary green walls escaped my hunt. I would have loved to have seen the representation of Van Gogh's 'A Wheatfield, with Cypresses' at the National Gallery, and those installed for Wimbledon fortnight. However I did manage to catch the showstopper one at Sloane Square a couple of years ago, those set up for the 2012 Olympics, plus a host of those used in various show gardens (particularly this thought provoking one).

There are plenty of artificial green walls to be found, either using plastic plants (see my Separated at Birth? post from Piccadilly), or hoardings using huge photographs of green wall installations. Most of these are a wasted opportunity in my view, but understandable when I found out some of the costs involved (e.g. Edgware Road is reported to have cost £120,000 for 200m²). However, I really liked the one I found in the Wellness Centre at St James Court Hotel. The use of floral aromatherapy oils there meant nothing was missing in terms of scent!

Main picture: 20 Fenchurch Street; Top left: student accommodation at The Minories, both in late April
Top right: Rubens by the Palace Hotel; Bottom left, then right: St James Court Hotel and Puddle Dock - all in early July

It's early days yet

Not all living walls have survived in the UK and the first official one - installed in Islington in 2006 and reported dead in 2009 - was controversial because public money was used to fund it. Since then, construction techniques have improved, and most of the the walls I've seen are in a better condition.

I was quite worried about the health of quite a few of them when I first visited at the end of April. A return to view some of them earlier this month (Rubens at the Palace Hotel, Edgware Road, St James Court Hotel, and Puddle Dock) showed they were in much better heart.

I still need to return to the one at The Minories, which I was most concerned about. I anticipate it will have improved like the others, but quite a lot of the horizontal planting below the windows looked like it'll require replanting. I've also heard that the wall at 20 Fenchurch Street is facing issues caused by the strong downdraughts found in the area.

Dozens of different plant species are used for green and living walls and to my inexpert eye some fare much better than others. Heucheras, Sarcococca and Vinca were doing well in April, and I could see ferns unfurling after their winter sleep. The grasses I saw also looked to be good doers, and we all know how well ivy thrives in all kinds of conditions.

I'm sure some plants will need more maintenance than others, such as the lavender and geraniums I saw at Edgware Road. This need for maintenance needs to be balanced against other benefits these plants may bring to the walls in which they're used. And if plants die... well, I saw evidence of these not being replaced earlier this month (too difficult or costly perhaps?), despite online assurances that regular maintenance is in place.

Since the first living wall's demise, their design and irrigation has improved, and the knowledge of which plants are suitable has increased. Planting techniques and growing media have also changed. Despite these changes, I sense there is room for improvement for growing walls consistently and well, which in turn should bring down their costs.

Whether these walls can deliver on their promise (year-round or otherwise) and supposed benefits, is still to be assessed. Research is in hand at various institutions, and that's a topic I'll return to another day. There are some DIY options to explore too, should you fancy having a green wall to call your own.

Two of the green walls I found at the Olympic Park during the Paralympics in 2012

If you know of any green walls I've not mentioned, please leave details in the comments below, or feel free to tell me about them in a blog post of your own.

Update

Sadly the green wall at the Elephant and Castle tube station isn't faring well as shown in Richard Reynold's tweet in January 2018. It illustrates the importance of maintenance in these specialised structures. I wonder how its cousin at Edgware Road is faring...