The Lower Regents Coalition (LRC), a group of volunteers based in Tower Hamlets, has reached the finals of the Canal & River Trust’s Living Waterways Awards, which recognizes the most inspiring waterway-based projects across the UK. The LRC has been nominated in the Community and Volunteering category for its Greening the Regents project, a scheme of enhancement events along the Regents Canal, with a focus on inviting local residents to get involved. LRC founding member Dave Bedford said, “Our work is about enhancing the environment and inviting people to help us care for the canal and green spaces we are…
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Another native Black Poplar has been planted in Poplar – the part of the Borough that drew its name from a time when this now rare species was plentiful. It happened as part of an event organised by the parish churches of All Saints and St.Nicholas which, after a gap of over 100 years, reintroduced the ancient practice of Beating the Parish Bounds. This was a ceremony traditionally held at ‘Rogationtide’ – which normally falls in May – when priest and people would process around the parish perimeters asking for God’s blessing on the crops, and on the place and…
City workers swap sharp suits for litter pickers and hi visibility vests A team of nearly one hundred volunteers from Citibank joined residents to help the council improve the area around Tobacco Dock in Wapping on Saturday June 13. It was the first phase of the Wapping Ornamental Canal enhancement project – an important scheme that will upgrade parts of Wapping in Tower Hamlets. The volunteers helped clean the Tobacco Dock area, making improvements including painting, clearing litter and constructing nesting platforms, bird boxes and bat boxes. The changes are being made to improve the space and enrich the area,…
The weekend of 13-14 June 2015 is this year’s Open Garden Squares Weekend, an opportunity to explore gardens and open spaces which are usually closed to the public (including Cable Street Community Garden, pictured above). Over 200 gardens are taking part in Open Garden Squares Weekend this year. There is a real variety – from the traditional private squares to contemporary roof gardens, not to mention skips, prisons, museums, schools and allotments. These are a mix of gardens that are private, those that are not normally open at weekends and some that are open, but are hidden gems that you…
Tower Hamlets Council has planted 1200 small trees at Jolly’s Green Open Space, in Poplar, as part of a bid to improve our environment. The trees were planted to address the fact that there is little woodland in Tower Hamlets.The recent planting of trees consisted of a mixture of species native to Britain, including Field Maple, Hazel, Cherry, Buckthorn, Elder and Guelder Rose. The creation of this new woodland will encourage wildlife, reduce local air and noise pollution and enhance the local environment. Over the next three years, the council’s Clean and Green team intends to plant additional trees to…
On 10-11 April 2015, volunteers planted native aquatic vegetation to improve wildlife habitats in the Regent’s Canal opposite the Ragged School Museum. This contributed to targets in the Tower Hamlets Local Biodiversity Action Plan by enhancing 110 metres of canal and creating 26 square metres of reed bed. Molly Gadenz of the Lower Regents Coalition, one of the main organizers or the scheme, reports on the day and talks about future plans: “The Lower Regents Coalition is a volunteer group formed in June 2013 by two individuals who had a shared appreciation for their local stretch of the Regents Canal…
Local spider expert Edward Milner recently found an adult male Long-legged Cellar Spider (Psilochorus simoni) in Lockhart Field during his regular spider monitoring in Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park. This tiny relative of the ordinary Daddy-long-legs Spider (Pholcus phalangioides) is rather scarce in Britain, and almost always found in buildings. It is very unusual to find it outside buildings (the entrance to caves may be its natural habitat), and this may be the first British record from grassland. This is the only European species of the genus Psilochorus, which is mainly found in the Americas where there are 30-40 species. The…
At the end of March 2015, Tower Hamlets Homes planted a new mixed native hedge at Matilda House to improve wildlife habitat and provide a more attractive boundary along St Katharine’s Way and Thomas More Street. A line of trees along much of the southern boundary of the estate is mostly made up of typical hedgerow species, such as Field Maple, Hazel, Hawthorn and Cherry-plum. This strongly suggests that it was originally planted as a hedge, probably about 30 years ago, judging by the size of the trees. However, it was never managed as a hedge, instead being allowed to…
The ‘Dragon Finder’ app is Froglife’s free and easy to use app which allows everyone, of all ages and experience, to easily identify and record their sightings of amphibians and reptiles across the UK. The Dragon Finder app is available on iPhone and Android, with a mobile website available for other devices. For more information please see Froglife’s website. Anyone using the app within the UK can submit sightings of native and invasive amphibians and reptiles. It takes approximately three minutes for the sightings data to reach Froglife. Each month Froglife’s team ‘clean’ up the data, and take out anything…
On Saturday 21 March 2015, over 40 volunteers and members of the local community, including families from St Georges Estate, helped to plant 28 new trees and a mixture of roses, shrubs and grasses to create a beautiful, colourful garden that is also excellent habitat for wildlife. The garden will be known as Cable Gardens. Jim Fitzpatrick MP for Poplar and Limehouse attended the community planting event in St Georges Estate, which was organized for EastendHomes by urban tree planting charity, Trees for Cities. Cherry, hornbeam and birch trees were planted, along with a small grove of hazel. The birches…