LFA event: Act Now: Biodiversity in London

London Festival of Architecture is a month-long celebration of architecture and city making that takes place every June across London. As part of LFA this year we hosted Act Now: Biodiversity in London at the beautiful Camley Street Natural Park with London Wildlife Trust.

The panel discussion was chaired fantastically by Patrick Greenfield from the Guardian. James Lord, Landscape Partner at HTA was joined by David Mooney from London Wildlife Trust and Theresa Brewer from Landsec. The group discussed how to genuinely increase biodiversity in London and the challenges of bringing nature back to urban sites plus the importance of landscape led design to tackle the climate crisis. The engaging talk was followed by a tour of sunny Camley Street Natural park, a wild green space right in the middle of one of the most densely populated parts of London.

James Lord gives his outlook on the future: ‘I am optimistic, I am really optimistic that things can be transformed, attitudes can be transformed, places can be transformed. Look outside the doorstep here at Camley Street and you can just see the transformation to what that was – degraded, industrial waste land and then what it is today and the landscape surrounding Camley Street that we created. We can deliver meaningful transformation in the scale of London in a very short period of time. We can make things better.’

As part of London Festival of Architecture, London Wildlife Trust also hosted photography exhibition (designed by HTA) about the evolution of Camley Street Natural Park. Our guests explored the rich heritage of the natural park, originally an industrial coal yard connecting the canal and railways in the 1800's, archive images of Camley Street through the years as well as finding out more about the fascinating history of this urban gem.