Exhibition Road's New Planters

In April 2024, RBKC installed a row of 10 new planters on top of the existing Hostile Vehicle Mitigation (HVM) blocks at the southern end of Exhibition Road.  This pilot scheme is a result of an NCIL application that ERCG submitted to the council in 2022 for urban greening. 

The planters are made of a recycled material and contain drought-tolerant, pollinator-friendly, herbaceous planting.  There will also be some interpretation added to the boxes in due course, to tell people more about this initiative and explain the importance of creating stepping stones for nature in urban areas. 

Biodiversity and nature specialists from across the South Ken ZEN+ network were instrumental in commenting on the early iterations of this project, especially the plant selection. The planters will be maintained by the council’s contractors and are a welcome addition to what is otherwise quite a hard landscape along Exhibition Road. 

In the coming year, ERCG will be monitoring how well the plants fare through the seasons and(!) how the general public behaves towards them.

Hopefully this is just a taste of things to come as we work together to improve nature and biodiversity on Exhibition Road.