An innovative 200 square metre green wall on a central London Tube station wall designed to trap pollution on one of London’s busiest roads, has been unveiled. The visually stunning green wall has taken just a month to install and, as well as having practical environmental benefits, is an attractive leafy addition to Marylebone Road.
It features a total of 15 plant varieties crafted into a multi-coloured and patterned design. Studies across Europe and the USA have shown the potential of vegetation, including trees and plants, to trap PM10. The air quality benefits of this wall will be monitored by scientists from Imperial College London.
The green wall is just one of a range of innovative and targeted measures being introduced by London Mayor, Boris Johnson, to deliver cleaner air in London at places where particulate matter (PM10) pollution is highest. This includes an unprecedented programme of green infrastructure designed to trap pollution – other features recently installed include 50 planted towers on Lower Thames Street and the planting of 200 Lime trees along the A40.
The initiatives are part of the London Clean Air Fund financed by the Department for Transport (DfT). The Clean Air Fund measures have been designed to reduce levels of PM10 (a pollutant coming mostly from traffic emissions) by between 10 and 20 per cent where applied.
The plants that have been used for the wall have been grown in ‘Grodan’ (a peat-free substrate). Grodan has achieved the European Ecolabel for sustainability and is chemically inert. The structure that supports the plants includes ‘Ecosheet’ (a waterproof backing material) which is manufactured in the UK from recycled material.
Transport for London is in discussions with other organisations on further locations for additional green walls in areas that would benefit from them most.