Green wall of Edgware road

Oh the joy of greenery in such a concrete environment.  I was delighted to stumble across this wonderful 'Green wall' plant installation on the side of the Edgware road tube station.  An initiative by Transport for London to improve air quality in the city.

Luscious layers of plants with contrasting textures, colours... long grasses next to chunky leaved plants. A beautiful and enlightening image in such a chaotic area that is Edgware road, right next to the Marylebone flyover! 

 As I got closer, there was a man with some weird piece of machinery, what seemed to look like he was hoovering the greenery.  They were actually doing just that, but it was in order to collect insect samples from the plants.

By chance there was a lovely lady from the University of Staffordshire there, talking to a man who seemed to be some sort of animal rights activist and was arguing that it was unfair to collect the bugs and was asking the lady who was an insectologer whether it was morally right to take the insects and that they should be sedated (what a ridiculous suggestion!)...  alas, I disagreed and I said that this was benefiting the city environment and the insects that were being collected were only being used towards the overall well being of nature in the country - the little martyrs they are!  She explained that its necessary to see what type of insects are thriving in these types of polluted levels. Considering that so many of natures creatures are being threatened due to modern societies unstoppable growth I think its hugely important.  Alls I can hope is that one day, all the sky scrapers in London will be covered in plants!  What a wonderful image that would be!  We can only dream........

John Martin - Fall of Babylon

 

Bike Rally Through Central London

Was just having a stroll through central London and unexpectedly a bike rally/protest appeared in the centre of Oxford Circus blocking traffic on all 4 sides.  A rather wonderful moment, as I am a great supporter of the possibility of pedestrianising central London.
  As much as I respected their boycott of the streets, I thought it was a little defeatist as the amount of traffic that then became congested was probably creating an unnecessary amount of pollution just sitting there waiting for the protest to move on.

  I suppose its the one of the ways to make people realise the prevailing pollution issue that this country has - considering the recent news that we will be fined by the European Commission if we don't reduce our NO2 emissions.  Its pathetic that we even appealed for a delay on our pollution improvement, its clearly a pressing matter.  London continues to grow, but no one really thinks about the consequences and also the fact that London is the most polluted city in Europe is cause for concern, not to mention that it also has been estimated to reduce life expectancy by 8 months and I'm sure that will continue to rise.

  London politicians need to open their eyes and ears, and make some crucial decisions about the future of our city - the streets are disgusting, we have terrible recycling facilities and not to mention the fact that people don't seem to care about recycling is another matter.  We are a city of excess; more retail outlets than necessary, goodness knows how many chain food outlets which are so big on individual packaging for everything.  I am livid about the fact that Macdonald's is the official food sponsor for the Olympics.  Absolutely disgusting if you ask me and the complete antithesis to the whole point of the Olympics; which is apparently promoting sport and healthy living - obviously its a money making campaign, far beyond the true reality of it classical counterpart.