Created in May 2023, the Waste to Wildlife Garden uses recycled building materials to provide a mini green oasis where life can flourish.

Located between King’s College London, Guy’s Hospital and Guy’s Cancer Centre on Great Maze Pond, the Garden highlights the ways in which green spaces can offer health and wellbeing benefits, providing a colourful intervention in a corridor which was previously stark, bare and covered with stone.

Originally inspired by the Fashion and Textile Museum on Bermondsey Street, an orange and pink colour palette connects the site to the Putting Down Roots Gardens in Guy’s Memorial Garden and London Bridge City, as well as the nearby Greenwood Theatre, creating a welcoming visual language.

The uplifting colours and carefully selected planting are visually soothing and engaging, providing a sense of continuity and coherence through the area, aiding wayfinding and making the place feel cared for and safer. They are ‘cues to care’, showing that the wild looking mix of plants and rubble are a conscious construction and not a product of neglect.

The substrate materials used provide different habitat possibilities for a wide range of invertebrates and the drought tolerant planting features wildflowers and introduced species suited to these specific conditions to form a novel ecosystem.

The Waste to Wildlife Garden was created by a partnership of Cityscapes, Guy’s and St Thomas’ Charity, Keltbray, King’s College London, and Team London Bridge.