Green Roofs in London Taking Shape

There’s been long talks about making the world’s largest cities greener. However, very little gets done. Things are about to change. The Environmental Agency is expected to push forward their Green Roof Toolkit, which is a set of regulations and recommendations aimed at developers and private builders. Making London’s roofs greener is a small step towards making our smokin’ capital that little bit more environmentally friendly. A good precedent exists in New York and Berlin where people plant gardens and keep bees on urban roofs.

Currently, more and more houses are built with flat roofs (and I’m a big fan of those). Planting grass and flowers on them makes a perfect sense – they look great, they filter the air and, hey, they provide extra insulation. You can hardly come up with a better insulation than soil. It was estimated that if you added together all the flat roofs in London they would add up to an area 24 times the size of Richmond Park. Probably the bigest green roof in the capital is up the Berkeley Court – a gorgeous apartment complex in Marylebone, NW1 – the garden area reaches 1 and 1/4 acres. Amazing. A flat rent in this house starts from approximately £4000 pcm. Considering the location and the private access to the roof, it is not that expensive!

So, if you’re about to build something flat-roofed in London, please check Environmental Agency Roof Toolkit, fill in the form and find out more.