Floral Street living wall: bringing evergreen biodiversity to Covent Garden

Shaftesbury Capital has installed a 140m² living wall on Floral Street, Covent Garden, enhancing urban biodiversity and wellbeing. Featuring a mix of native and flowering plants, the wall supports pollinators, improves air quality, and creates a calming green space, reflecting both the Wild West End partnership principles and Shaftesbury Capital’s broader sustainability goals.

In the heart of one of London’s busiest districts, Covent Garden, Shaftesbury Capital has built a 140m2 living wall, designed and installed by green infrastructure specialists Biotecture. The project adds a significant patch of biodiverse green space to Floral Street’s urban environment.

Native evergreens such as ferns and ivy, and naturalised species like Evergold sedge create year-round greenery, bringing ecological and aesthetic value. Flowering plants, including Mexican Fleabane and Wall Bellflower, provide vital foraging opportunities for bumblebees, solitary bees, hoverflies, and butterflies, helping to address pollinator decline in the city. The vertical design also supports small insects such as ladybirds and lacewings, contributing to a thriving microhabitat.

By enhancing both biodiversity and human wellbeing, the Floral Street living wall demonstrates how thoughtfully designed urban greening can provide multiple, overlapping benefits for wildlife, residents, workers, and visitors alike.

Partner:

Shaftesbury Capital

Collaborators:

Biotecture

Green infrastructure type:

Green wall
Vertical planting

Ecosystem services provided:

Biodiversity Net Gain
Invertebrate habitat
UHI reduction
Stormwater management
Connection to nature