Context

Canary Wharf Crossrail station opened in 2018 and is the largest, and probably busiest intersection point on the fast east / west Crossrail line. Over 100,000 people already work in the Canary Wharf estate and the Wood Wharf residential project will add 3,200 new homes.

The £500m Crossrail Place station project has been masterminded by Foster and Partners. On eight floors (four of them below water level), it embraces transport, retail, leisure and a public, 5,300 square metre semi-tropical roof garden. Its position near the Greenwich Meridian is reflected in beds divided between Eastern and Western flora.

Part of the project is a striking, semi-open roof structure containing leisure facilities and gardens.

Gillespies, with Standerwick Landscape Design, were entrusted with the garden design. Growth Industry Ltd of Hawkhurst, Kent provided specialist consultancy advice on species selection and measures to ensure that the physical restraints, including shallow substrate and overhead structures, were suitably cared for.

Products used

GreenBlue Urban's products, including the modular structural StrataCells affording optimum load bearing and root welfare environments, were integrated into the scheme. Along with their ribbed ReRoot root training systems, these products will provide the needed soil volumes and controls for many years of potential growth and environmental benefit and deliver low maintenance requirements.