Thursday 18th August 2011
The living roof is part of a wider project ‘Living Roofs for London’s Wildlife’ funded through the SITA Enriching Nature Programme and delivered by wildlife conservation charity Buglife – The Invertebrate Conservation Trust and Livingroofs.org. Living roofs have now been installed in five locations across London including Lewisham Town Hall, Transport for London headquarters in St James Park, 222 Upper Street in Islington and the University of East London (Stratford)and Abbey Hive community building, Camden.
Clare Dinham, Buglife Brownfield Officer said “The new living roof will provide home for a variety of bugs ranging from the Brown banded carder bee (Bombus humilis) to nationally scarce beetles such as the Bombadier beetle (Brachinus crepitans). The living roof mimics that of an ex-industrial site with areas of poor bare ground, log piles and bee banks for bugs to bask and burrow. We have planted nectar and pollen rich wildflowers including species such as bird’s foot trefoil, self heal and viper’s bugloss for pollinators such as bees, butterflies and beetles”.
Daniel White, Sustainability Officer, London Borough of Camden said “Camden is proud that Buglife, Living Roofs.org and their partners have chosen to support this wonderful project, which we hope it will provide both a valuable invertebrate habitat in an urban area and an educational platform to show a green roof to a local community.”
The roof was designed by specialists in urban living roofs - The Green Roof Consultancy and Living Roofs.org and based on extensive scientific research of rare bees, spiders and beetles found on roofs in London and Switzerland. The roof was installed by the Dorset based green roof company Landmark Living Roofs Ltd.
Dusty Gedge, Living Roofs.org said “Re-creating a habitat at roof level plays an important role in nature conservation, particularly in urban areas. This exciting project has shown that taking a considered ecological approach to creating a living roof leads to great benefits for pollinators such as beetles, spider and bees”.
