We are lucky to be part of an important green corridor that includes the Regent’s Canal, the sides of the many railway tracks here, Camley Street Natural Park owned by the London Wildlife Trust and even the little local domestic gardens littered around – the most important in the immediate locality being the south end of Battlebridge Basin and a hidden delight, the gardens behind Wharfdale Road/Balfe Street/Northdown Street/The Cally.

Low maintenance is important to this garden for two reasons, the obvious one being that low maintenance gardens look and thrive better for longer. But there’s another equally important reason for wildlife gardens. Wildlife – particularly the birds and bats we hope to attract, don’t respond well to being disturbed. The ideal for us would be to get the plants in and then just leave them alone for a couple of years’ at a time, only pruning and twiddling at times of year when no nesting activity takes place.

Using Marie’s plant list for the green sculpture, we’ve started to list the wildlife connections her planting scheme has. We’ll add to this as we learn more, if you have information about the wildlife connections of any of the plants below do let us know.

Click on the images below to go to either the RHS page for that plant, or where we couldn’t find an RHS link, the Wikipedia page.

Our reference	Plant	Common name	Local wildlife connections
14	Trachleospermum jasminoides	Star jasmine	Moths, bats, birds
12	Verbeena bonariensis	Verbena	Butterflies, bees
11	Stipa gigantea	Golden oats
10	Salvia officinalis	Garden sage	Bees, green tortoise beetle
7	Geranium ‘Roseanne’	Cranesbill	Butterflies, moths, bats
6	Geranium ‘Psilostemum’	Armenian cranesbill	Bees
16	Fascicularia bicolor	Crimson Bromeliad
15	Chamaerops humilis	Mediterranean Fan Palm
9	Rosmarinus prostratus	Creeping rosemary	Bees
8	Lampranthus spectbabilis	Purple ice plant
5	Euphorbia mellifera	Honey spurge	Bees
4	Convulvulus cneorum	Silverbush	Birds, bees, butterflies, moths, bats
3	Ceanothus prostrate variety	Californian lilac	Bees, hoverflies
2	Aloe striatula	Coral Aloe
1	Agave americana	Century plant

 Marie Clarke’s garden design for the King’s Cross green sculpture:

This concrete ‘ground beam’ will provide a hefty weight. On top of this a steel template will be fitted, the sculpture will sit on top of that and be bolted through the holes on the template to the ground beam. The 10m high sculpture will be free standing, so the ground beam will fix it firmly in position.

Also on-site at the moment, providing their expertise to this community project for free, are:

Our baby: a 7m wide, 1m deep by 10m high sculpture housing a wildlife friendly vertical garden

We went to visit our baby last week and we can tell you, completely objectively, that she’s the most beautiful baby ever!!!

Locally based young sculptor Neil Ayling (who works with Sir Anthony Caro at his Camden studio) together with the amazing world famous metal magicians at Benson Sedgwick whose work includes major pieces in the Olympic Park is in the final stages of creating a vertical garden that will live on the north end of the King’s Cross one-way traffic gyratory system on Wharfdale Road. And all for a tiny fraction of what this should really cost.

Artist Neil Ayling and KCCP Manager Sophie Talbot inside the sculpture as it lays flat on the floor at the workshop

It’s going to be quite a sight.

• Massive metal pods coloured in moody tones of earth and sky filled to the brim with beautiful urban wildlife friendly plants.
• Wings soaring 10 meters high woven with glinting steely trellis carrying twining climbing plants that will be home to birds and insects.
• Hidden inside the wings a variety of welcoming bird and bat houses.
• Built-in irrigation, subtle solar powered up-lighting, and a very clever drainage system.

Looking up from what will be the base of the sculpture to the wings at the top. Couldn’t fit it all in our photo – in real life this was an incredible sight

We’ll be thanking everyone for their contributions to the project for many years to come. For now, special mention goes to:

BAM Construction

Looking across the pods towards the bottom of the sculpture with the Benson Sedgwick workshop in the background

Their wonderful site manager, currently on-site at Regent’s Quarter between York Way, Wharfdale Road and Railway Street N1, is overseeing the complicated mix of contractors we need to install our baby. And BAM Construction are doing this free gratis and for nothing. They are keen that their work here leaves a lasting legacy our community will always benefit from.

Micropiling Group and Complete Offices at Lighterman House

The green sculpture will sit in front of Lighterman House on Wharfdale Road. Complete Offices were so impressed with Neil’s design that they have donated the foundations, literally. The sculpture will be bolted through a ground beam (a heavy slab of concrete) to its foundations. How much are the Micropiling Group and Lighterman House charging? Absolutely not a penny.

J Reddington Ltd

Sophie and Neil with the Benson Sedgwick team

Before the foundations could be laid the ground needed to be prepared – broken up and left open. Once the foundations are set and the temperature reaches at least 3 degrees, the land above the foundations will be reinstated to tarmac, except where the sculpture will cover it. Underneath the sculpture will be land left for natural drainage. Reddington’s fee for the work? Nothing, nada, nowt.

Benson Sedgwick have attached a variety of permanent fittings to the sculpture for various reasons. These lifting fittings will be removed once the sculpture is lifted into place by http://www.citylifting.co.uk

Places for People

Owners of the land that the sculpture will eventually sit on is property management, development and regeneration company Places for People. They are beavering away finalising the legal agreement we will soon sign. Are they charging us for legal costs? Nope, they are not.

E C Harris and Alan Conisbee

The list of people to thank is much, much longer than this and we’ll post more soon (we’ll focus on paintwork and planting design shortly). E C Harris (Project managers) and Alan Conisbee (Structural engineer) remain the keys to the project. It’s simple: without either of them this would not be happening. Charges? None.

We think we can safely say, we are a very lucky, and very grateful community project indeed!

If you’d like to make a cash donation to the project and get your name on the plaque (which will be a sculpture all of it’s own), just click here.

And a company limited by guarentee, number 7887758

And is a member of BT Giving – the charity donation site recommended by moneysavingexpert.com. Click to donate to us

Our history

Three people who’ve lived in King’s Cross for ages got together in 2007 because they wanted to improve their local area by transforming an ugly unloved space on the one way system.

They tried to persuade existing local organisations to ‘host’ their project by letting them manage it without having to set up a bank account and do all the admin it takes to create a new organisation. After two years of trying they gave up because it seemed impossible.

So they set up a new charity. Rather than set up a whole new organisation just for their one project they thought that other local people may be in their position – wanting to manage a project but not set up a whole organisation to do it. So, they called the charity King’s Cross Community Projects and they provide exactly the service they had desperately wanted when they started.

The charity has grown since then. In 2009 they used the community website, www.kingscrossenvironment.com, to invite more local people to become trustees.

Our trustees

Samir Afhim (Chair)
Samir is a professional fundraiser and currently works with Rethink

John Ashwell (Treasurer)
John was an accountant before giving up his career to become a designer. He is passionate about making King’s Cross green and beautiful!

Mike Jackson
Mike is a Kew-trained horticulturalist and currently provides training to vulnerable adults at Camden Garden Centre where he is Head of Social Enterprise Development and Training

Antonia Benedek
Antonia Benedek is a professional fundraiser, her clients have included Caledonian Youth Project 

Toby Newlands
Toby is a transport planner with a passion for KX, he produced the King’s Cross Walks Blog

Will Perrin
Will is the founder of the KC community website and talkaboutlocal.com where he supports people setting up hyperlocal websites

Our manager (on a voluntary basis)

Sophie Talbot has 30 years’ experience of working with and for community based organisations. She started as a young unemployed service user at First Base Centre for Young Unemployed People in the Meanwood area of Leeds in 1983. She quickly became a management committee member and from there carried on her passion for community-led projects. She became professionally qualified in organisation and community development in 1996 when she completed her Masters degree. In 1997 she spent a short while working with ANC ex-combatants in South Africa and on her return became a freelance consultant with clients including:

• Rotherham Economic Partnership (setting up the Rotherham Advice and Information Network, RAIN)
• Local voluntary action organisations in Lewisham and Islington
• London Council for Voluntary Service
• The London Development Agency

She managed the first voluntary sector led Single Regeneration Partnership – the Pan London Community Regeneration Consortium – providing free organisation development consultancy to community groups across the capital. She also managed Putting New Heart into Grahame Park, a local authority led regeneration programme in north London. At Government Office for London she was Mainstreaming Equalities Manager for European Structural Funds and finally, at the London Development Agency she was responsible for consultation, approvals, editing and production of the region’s first Economic Development Strategy.

Sophie left her career behind in 2004 and since then has been fulfilling a long-held ambition to use her skills and experience in her own community. She has also become a professional actor specialising in fringe theatre and runs her own web publishing business.

If you have a project (it might be about the environment, about access to public art or about improving public amenities in KX), contact us – we might just be what you’re looking for!