Spring greening: How Bankside is blooming this season

Brighter days, April showers and cherry blossoms scattered across the pavements, Bankside is blooming. After months of preparation, our urban green spaces are delivering their spring payoff, with crocuses, daffodils and tulips brightening even the smallest of corners.

Bees, blooms and Bankside’s wildlife

Early flowering, nectar-rich plants like green alkanet (Pentaglottis sempervirens) are providing vital food sources for spring pollinators. The hairy-footed flower bee, a solitary spring bee, is already buzzing around our Webber Street planters, most likely nesting in the soft mortar of the Victorian railway viaducts nearby.

Growing from seed on Bankside’s streets

Dan our Urban Gardener manage, maintain and extend green spaces for pollinators and people alike. It all starts with seeds collected directly from Bankside’s streets. At our Ewer Street sustainability hub, a heated propagator nurtures plants including fennel, amaranth and broad beans for nature and educational purposes.

This season we’re also introducing milk thistle (Silybum marianum) more widely across our green sites. This striking purple-flowered plant has been used for centuries as a medicinal treatment for liver-related conditions, thanks to its active antioxidant compound silymarin. After thriving in our Union Street planter last year, it is now ready to spread further across the neighbourhood.

Farewell to America Street, and what comes next

After almost a decade brightening the low line, it’s time to say farewell to the metal box garden on America Street. This quirky, temporary greening project has been a much-loved feature of the streetscape, and it’s making way for something exciting. A new 50m² rain garden will be carefully planted with species that can tolerate both drought and heavy rainfall, soaking up road runoff and supporting urban biodiversity.

Encouraging pollinators in urban spaces

We are also refreshing our Better Air Letters at Tabard Market, celebrating simple ways to add habitat structures that attract more pollinating insects into urban spaces. As we continue to connect Bankside’s green corridors, we hope you’ll step outside, look up, and discover the incredible nature all around, perhaps spotting a pair of wagtails using the railway as a highway, or hearing a blackbird sing from a chimney top on Copperfield Street.