On 20 May, World Bee Day, Islington Comms team member Miles joined the Clerkenwell Pollinator Project’s day of events held in St John’s Garden.  

The project, which is council-funded and resident-led, has been monitoring Clerkenwell’s pollinators and the plants they visit the most. This has informed their planting choices this year, and they were out on Wednesday with earth, trowels, sunflowers, wallflowers, lambs ear and geraniums in tow, encouraging local office-goers and visitors to Clerkenwell Design Week to enliven their lunch breaks with some pollinator-friendly gardening.  

A diverse mix of volunteers helped out, including local designers, architects, parents, creatives – and coincidentally even one professional from a company selling plants! 

Anniki, an architect from Metropolitan Workshop, told me how she’d just been wandering by, as her colleagues had said how lovely it was to have St John’s Garden nearby for a bit of lunchtime nature. She gardens at home on her terrace, tending to tomato plants and sprinkling meadow flowers when she has time. Luke, her colleague, said he’d been planning to just come out and read a book, but had spotted some activity and got stuck in. Both worked away in the Spring sun with smiles on their faces. 

Sarah Wood, the Pollinator Project’s lead, explained to me that hardy geraniums had proved extremely popular with bees. As well as planting their favourite blooms, the Project have spent the Spring installing 15 bee hotels and 6 bee banks across Clerkenwell green spaces and estates, including some fine specimens in St John’s Garden. These habitats will help pollinators thrive, bringing health and happiness to locals – humans and non-humans alike. They’ve received enthusiastic support from residents, says Sarah: “Some of our most enthusiastic gardeners are little ones – when they see the hose pipe pop out, they run down!” 

Kabir, who works at OE Electrics just down the road, arrives to help, having been firmly instructed to do so by his wife. “We always see Sarah walking around with her buckets, tending to the park – it’s so appreciated.” 

I decide to get involved myself and plant a sunflower, realising at that moment that my jeans have sunflowers on them. Dress for the job you want, I guess! I’m helped by project volunteer Shari, who has lived on the street for years, but says the warm, welcoming park is unrecognisable since Covid. The Friends of St John’s Park group have totally transformed it.  

“I grew up in an American suburb with a tight sense of community. I now feel that same sense of neighbourliness thanks to our volunteering with the park. My children love it and have made friends with other local kids.” 

She points proudly at two pots with her sons’ names sticking out of them on wooden labels. 

The project have produced a Clerkenwell Pollinator Toolkit, to help locals make the most of their gardens, balconies, and window boxes, “and create your own bee buffets”, as Sarah memorably puts it.