Roof gardens were a common sight in most of the places in London, and are enjoying a new start, together with the increasing popularity of the living roofs. Ken Livingstone, former Mayor’s green roof campaign main objective is to encourage people of London to make living green roofs, roof terraces and gardens as famous as in other main European cities. Mayor Livingstone says that, latest building techniques enable several types of green roofs, and along with the small-scale gardens, it is possible to fix more ambitious greenery on bigger buildings, from meadows and wildlife habitats to golf courses, formal gardens, and allotments.

New Providence Wharf housing plan of Living Roofs

Among the newest buildings with homes to get a green roof is the New Providence Wharf housing plan in the Docklands, where there is a huge range of planting, from top swathes of sedum with wild flowers to more traditional and formal gardens. At the Canary Wharf, close by is the Barclays Bank tower, which is 525 ft, and is considered to be one of the popular rooftop gardens in the world. On a smaller scale, a latest housing plan at the Paddington Walk in west London, the Gillespies is the landscaper; it has elegantly detailed gardens with different Indonesian, Moroccan, and Japanese themes.

Attraction of Living Roof

‘We thought a living roof would be a lot more attractive to look out on.’ Living roofs are not new to London. They were famous during the 1930s, typified by attractive plans, like the living roof gardens at the Berkeley Court in Marylebone that remain a selling point of this big mansion block. Most wonderful is the 1 ½ acre urban oasis of the ‘Kensington Roof Garden’ with full-sized trees and pink flamingos, a Spanish garden, an English woodland garden, and a Tudor garden.

On a smaller scale, the latest green scheme includes homeowners who would like to do something for the environment. In Highbury, Pia Conti installed a living roof of flowers and low-growing grasses on her garden extension.