We’re happy to announce that our team has sowed the first planting trial at Lendlease’s Silvertown site in December 2023. Located in the London Borough of Newham, the Silvertown development will regenerate the derelict Royal Docks to a vibrant new neighbourhood founded in industrial heritage. The site is classified as Open Mosaic Habitat (OMH) on Previously Developed Land - a UKBAP priority habitat and valuable urban ecosystem.

Our mission as Landscape Architects has been to integrate OMH plant communities into a dense urban development. Following research and creation of improved design guidance for Lendlease to ensure resilience in biodiverse roofs, the challenge now is how to successfully deliver OMH within the public realm at the neighbourhood scale for Silvertown.

This will be the first of several planting trials at Silvertown – we are working alongside Greengage ecologists and Tim O’Hare soil scientists in developing and monitoring the trials. Inspired by James Hitchmough’s seed sown meadows and John Little’s experiments with waste substrates, we initially proposed an autumn/winter seed sowing of four standard wildflower seed mixes.

The mixes were sown into substrates consisting of crushed brick/concrete and recycled sand, with small lenses of calcium carbonate slurry (chalk) - a local byproduct of sugar manufacture at the Tate & Lyle factory at Silvertown.

Our aim is to test which species emerge and thrive, how long it takes, perception, resilience to use, and critically – does this constitute OMH from an ecological perspective? The trials will help us monitor establishment and inform management techniques.