Firstly, many thanks to all the volunteers, businesses and Camden Council who have supported work in Russell Square Gardens over the past few years.
If you are interested in helping, please contact David Marchant at marchant543@btinternet.com
Much has happened since June 2018 when the need was felt to bring the community together to support Camden’s flagship Garden Park. Over the last few years since the Lottery Funded refurbishment, Russell Square had been showing the results of austerity and the need for the Community to come together to make a difference. Many ongoing maintenance works had been delayed or postponed due to a lack of funding.
Why life really should be a walk in the park
Green areas boost moods as much as Christmas Day and make people happier and less self-absorbed. Researchers also found that that their elevated mood lasted – ‘like a glow’ – for up to four hours afterwards.
Essential work to enhance the gardens
Working with Camden Council the Commissioners of Russell Square identified a programme of essential work that would enhance the Gardens. This work involved the perimeter hedge being cut down to the height of the railings and the internal face of the hedge trimmed back, to allow the hedge to thicken and to provide the screen and the filter originally envisaged. It has been shown that this could reduce the effects of pollution by 50%. The A4200 Southbound from Russell Square to Aldwych is the 5th most polluted of the UK’s roads.
The shrubs in the perimeter border had become overgrown and spindly and these were reduced and thinned to give all the shrubs an opportunity to fill out at a lower level. Lawn maintenance works included aerating, scarifying and top-dressing sections of the garden to improve lawn areas. Repairs to the fountain paving and grills and reinstating the integrated fountain lights.
The feature up-lighting to the trees, the horse-shoe arch and the Duke’s Statue were renewed with 15w LED bulb units with a design life of 50,000 hours, the LED chip/lens can be replaced as can the drivers. These lamps are very economical using less than a third of a dim domestic bulb with a long life and high light output.
Every home should convert to LED bulbs to save energy and the planet as these bulbs use less than 5% of the energy of a traditional bulb.
New planting in 2008
On the 3rd October 2018 the Camden’s Head of Green Spaces agreed that some replanting was required. It was suggested that if Camden were to buy the plants, volunteers would provide the labour to do the planting. This would considerably reduce the cost and make the community feel involved. 2,400 bulbs were provided by Camden and were planted by Corporate Volunteers from ASOS organised by TCV on 7th November 2018. A very successful day was enjoyed planting the bulbs around the entrance gates of the Gardens. This brought colour in the following Spring as can be seen in the photos below:
Two new Insect Hotels
The Imperial Hotel and the Kimpton Fitzroy Hotel agreed to sponsor two Insect Hotels in June 2018 and the manufacture of the two Insect Hotels was completed by Wildlifeworld in December 2018. TCV again through their Corporate Volunteer Scheme arranged for the British Retail Consortium to enjoy a day erecting the two Insect Hotels in March 2019. A video of the Challenge was produced and can be seen on https://typito.com/share/qAY2V6Mz
The images of both Insect Hotels have been put on Instagram with many likes.
‘The insect hotels are awesome. I’m a Gardener in Fort Worth, Texas, and we are planning a pollinator garden. Had planned to have a little house for bees, but this is fantastic and beautiful and cute! We may steal your idea.’
The Insect Hotels have been included on the Wild West End map, and an article will be published in People’s Friend Special No 192 on sale Spring 2020.
The insect hotels continue to attract considerable interest and are photographed about every 5 minutes on a sunny day. It may take several years for the Insect Hotels to be fully occupied but several sealed tubes indicate that there are already some residents.
Insect Hotels are key to an ecologically healthy environment because of their role in encouraging insect pollination. The Insect Hotel has been constructed to the highest environmental standards from certified timber from managed woodlands and where possible recycled materials in place of plastic or metal. They have been designed to provide a home for several beneficial insects.
Butterflies produce the first bright splash of fluttering colour on a warm day in Spring, however, over 70% of our butterflies are declining. To help them, we have therefore planted flowers and shrubs rich in pollen and nectar.
Replanting the central flower beds in 2019
To support the Insect Hotels the Camden’s Head of Green Spaces agreed that the 6 Central flower beds should have more colour and height. It was suggested that if the Camden were to buy the plants volunteers would again plant them. The Commissioners of Russell Square provided the tools and equipment required for the job.
The call for Volunteer Gardeners in Russell Square was answered by the community with residents, Bedford Estates staff and students from the University of London, Imperial Hotel, and the British Museum all coming together.
On Saturday 23rd March with plants supplied by Camden the Volunteers planted the first two flower beds to re-establish the area around the Fountains.
The planting of 900 insect attracting herbaceous plants that will mature creating colour and an enhanced ecological environment. This will be the start of bringing the sparkle back to Russell Square, an essential green oasis with trees and plants that absorb pollution and offset the negative effects of an inner-city urban environment. The remaining four central flower beds were planted over the following two weekends by other members of the Volunteer group. This new planting will provide food for the insects and the existing bees from the hives to be found in the gardens and on the roofs in the area.
Gardening as you can see above is not all about digging but there are rest stops at the cafe!
The feed-back from the Volunteers produced the comments below:
‘I had been looking for something along these lines for a while and was delighted to find that such a group exists. Not only was it fun to garden, but the social side of it really adds a community touch to the neighbourhood.’
‘It felt rewarding to achieve so much with such a lovely people. I would love to continue volunteering with the group’
In November the Commissioners of Russell Square provided 10,000 bulbs that will flower from March to May 2020 to provide nectar for the insect’s resident in the Insect Hotels, The bulbs were planted and fencing erected by the Russell Square Volunteer Gardeners with the help of Goodgym.
The weather started dry but eventually turned wet but despite the change in conditions, ‘We had a lovely day and the dogs (and we!) slept very well last night! Can’t wait to see the bulbs come up in the spring. Thanks so much.’
A very energetic Goodgym provided the muscle to drive the fencing posts and erect the stock mesh around the planted area. Fencing and Squirrel protection were provided by Camden Council and after its removal will be stored and reused for the next planting of bulbs to be supplied again by the Russell Square Commissioners in November 2020.
Involving Refugee Groups
The Director of London Parks & Gardens Trust has been working with the Gardens Trust on a Heritage Lottery Fund (now NLHF) project called ‘Sharing Repton’. The project involved working with 3 groups of Refugees. In October they held an introductory day on garden history working in partnership with English Heritage at Kenwood House (a Repton Site) and a further visit was arranged at Russell Square Gardens.
The concept is to attract hard to reach groups to get involved and volunteer for London’s Landscapes. This has been a roaring success with a lot of other refugee groups seeking to get involved.
Following the presentation in Russell Square the refugee organisations identified a group of 4-5 refugees who are keen to undertake the planting of a bed in the garden and continue to maintain the bed. They have received advice (from the English Heritage senior gardener who helped us on the day) on plants suitable for the conditions.
The Refugee event was arranged to coincide with the Russell Square Volunteer Group working in the gardens, and they were invited to help with the bulb planting and join the Volunteers for lunch that had been kindly provided by Tropea Café.
Barbara Deason London Parks & Gardens Trust said, ‘I think it would be hard to overestimate the impact on the refugees of being invited to plant a bed in an historic London garden square. It means an enormous amount to them in terms of feeling accepted in this country and helps them recover some of the dignity they lost through the process of migration and resettlement. So thank you for making that happen.’
We had a Volunteers Garden Party on 4th July in Montague Gardens hosted thanks to The Bedford Estates which included a presentation by Dr Nigel Reeves an ecologist at the Royal Parks. He considered Russell Square and had some suggestions for how to encourage wildlife in the garden. We will work to include some of these in future projects.
The Volunteers said, ‘thanks for last evening; it was really interesting to learn about biodiversity and what we could do at small scale level.
Also, it was a nice opportunity to network with colleagues but also people outside the University. I am looking forward meeting some of you soon at our next gardening session.’
Russell Square’s application for a mix of free bulbs was successful and we received 500 extra bulbs from Metropolitan Public Gardens Association and TAYLORS BULBS OF SPALDING. Since the inception of the scheme, the MPGA and Taylors have distributed free spring bulbs to almost 800 organisations throughout the Capital, including schools, public gardens, hospices, churchyards and community gardens and we were very grateful to be included in this year’s distribution. The daffodils, snowdrops and crocus were planted in the south east entrance bed between the hellebores while the tulips and hyacinths were in the central beds.
Loss of a plane tree in 2019
Sad to say we lost one of the large plane trees in the summer 2019 due to high winds, fortunately no one was hurt but a taxi driver had a lucky escape.
We have received a request for 3 memorial trees to be planted in Russell Square, currently only one of the requests is likely to go forward.
The proposed tree could a Tilia Europaea planted within the grass area at the south eastern corner. This area of the square has a number of Tilia Europaea lime trees, and this will help to increase the biodiversity in the garden. The Lime leaves are eaten by the caterpillars of many moth species, including the lime hawk, peppered, vapourer, triangle and scarce hook-tip moths. They are very attractive to aphids, providing a source of food for their predators, including hoverflies, ladybirds and many species of bird (bees also drink the aphid honeydew deposited on the leaves). The flowers provide nectar and pollen for insects, particularly bees, it is interesting that the honey from the UCL bees mainly comes from trees
With the advent of Autumn, the trees lose their leaves and there have been a number of volunteers group assisting with racking and collecting the fallen leaves, these have included The Russell Square Volunteers, Facebook employees, and Goodgym.
Activities for 2020
We have funds for two bird feeding stations and would like to locate them behind the café where trees give the birds the opportunity to perch before visiting the station. We would be suggesting a robust timber pole with arms to carry two squirrel proof feeders with trays to catch nut bits. There are coal tits in this area this would assist them to over winter. The UCL Conservation Society have said they will keep the feeders topped up and the Commissioners will provide the nuts. We would also install an information board that would detail the birds present in the gardens.
The UCL Conservation Society consider Russell Square to be used as a feeding, roosting and nesting ground for a diverse community of birds, with about 25 species recorded over the last 3 years. Russell Square is the largest green space in Bloomsbury and one of the largest in the West End and the City of London. For this reason, it has an important role not just for resident birds but as a corridor for migratory species which pass through London in autumn and spring,
As part of the support for birds we would like to plant more shrubs in the perimeter beds that have berries in the winter, these would support the many blackbirds. RNPB suggest shrubs that have flowers attractive to insects and berries for the birds in the winter. To have shrubs in front of the café in the grass area that is unused and barren. These shrubs could replace the planters and give the Cafe a screen while at the same time the berries could help the Blackbirds etc. The left over stock fencing from the bulb protection could be used around the perimeter of the yard to support ivy and thicken the hedge. This would perhaps provide potential nesting sites and berries in the winter.
The box hedges around the central flower beds and the topiary are heavily infested with moths and it was felt that these should be replaced in the 2020 planting season with an alternative hedge resistant to the moths. The volunteers could assist with the removal and replacement in March, Camden will fund their replacement.
The flowers in the central beds to have gap replacements with species resistant to dry conditions, proposals will be agreed with both Camden and the Commissioners with planting to take place March 2020. Camden will provide and order the plants.
There are plans afoot to develop some specialty seating around the fountain to enhance the focal point of the Flagship Bloomsbury Square Gardens.
It has been noticed that some of the post tops in the perimeter fencing have corroded and some of the paint has been chipped off around the Square. We will see if there is a volunteer group that might be interested in doing some maintenance work.
The history boards for the gardens are being developed. It is proposed that these would be on the main diagonals from the tube and would replace the existing boards.
Humphry Repton the designer of Russell Square, said of Russell Square: ‘This Square may serve to record that the art of landscape gardening in the beginning of the 19th century was not directed by whims or caprice, but founded on due consideration of utility as well as beauty.’
So, let us work to his spirit and with sunny weather coming the Russell Square Gardens will continue to be the place to go to for lunch and to sit on the grass and benches. When we had the sun at the end of February, it was estimated that were 250 – 300 people sitting on the grass and in June this can reach 500 with the benches also being full.
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