Green Streets Terracotta Planters

In 2022/23, Eastern City BID’s ‘Green Streets’ project, a partnership with the City of London Corporation, saw a network of new public seating and street-planting arrive across the footprint in seven prime locations to deliver 36 new bespoke terracotta planters/seating units. The purpose of these interventions is to enhance aesthetic appeal, increase biodiversity and provide more tranquil spaces for seating and relaxation. These were largely a trial enhancement in those spaces which were identified for longer term, permanent improvements.

To help manage the increasing amount of greenery being installed across the BID footprint we funded an additional gardener dedicated to working solely across the Eastern City. Sitting within the broader City of London Gardens Team, they are responsible for enhanced upkeep at Fen Court, Fenchurch Street Station Plaza, the courts & alleyways, Rood Lane, Lime Street, New London Street, Creechurch Lane and St Botolph’s Without Bishopsgate Churchyard.

Alleyways and Courtyards

As recommended in the Public Realm Vision, we commissioned architects Studio Weave to design a network of new greening and seating interventions throughout the alleyways and courtyards to the west of Gracechurch Street and Bishopsgate. The aim of the project is to encourage alternative north-south walking routes and showcase the heritage within one of the City’s most historic quarters. This includes the likes of St. Michael’s Alley, George Yard, Change Alley and Lombard Court. These historic routes are being reimagined with new planting, seating and lighting to enhance their aesthetic and safety for pedestrians.

Jubilee Gardens

A green gem in the heart of the City was unveiled in the summer of 2025 at the official opening of the newly reimagined Jubilee Gardens. The Eastern City BID partnered with the City of London Corporation to transform this once uninviting and underutilised space into a welcoming, sustainable and bio-diverse garden, reflecting the evolving needs of the City and those who work and visit here.

Landscape architects Studio Weave designed the garden, which now includes 35 seating spaces and 12 new trees and 300sqm of planting within an imbedded crating system all sitting above three levels of basement, currently home to a working UK Power Networks station.

The Jubilee Gardens, located in Houndsditch, is fully accessible to the public and open 7 days a week 7am-7pm or dusk.

Leadenhall Street & Creechurch Lane

We are contributing £1 million over three years to the City of London Corporation’s improvement plans for Leadenhall Street and Creechurch Lane. This includes wider pavements, more planting, new seating and safer pedestrian crossings. These improvements will make crossing the street much easier and create new spaces for incidental use along it. Leading north from Leadenhall Street is Cunard Place, a pedestrian court that connects to Bury Street. It is currently home to a Sculpture in the City plinth and a handful of cycle stands and sees a degree of foot traffic at peak times. The development of 100 Leadenhall, will introduce two new pedestrian routes between Bury and Leadenhall Streets, in keeping with City development guidance. These new routes create an opportunity to make Cunard Place a space primarily for dwelling, rather than passing through.

2022

Partnering with the London Festival of Architecture (LFA) in 2022, Eastern City BID ran a series of free guided walking tours across the BID footprint. These explored some of the most iconic buildings in the Eastern City with qualified City of London’s tour guides, Paul Lincoln and Caroline Dale. The guides took 48 visitors through the Eastern City’s landscape: from distinctive architecture, exciting new developments and public art commissions to great places to grab a bite to eat or a drink after work. The tours explored the unique mix of ancient and modern in the City of London, looking into the archaeological layers of the area and its history.

2023

The following year, The City of London was a designated ‘Destination’ for the London Festival of Architecture, and we commissioned the City’s first Urban Playground, designed by architects McCloy & Muchwema inspired by children’s building blocks. The design, made from sustainably sourced cork, included a breadcrumb trail and featured vinyl-wrapped windows of a nearby vacant retail unit to tell the story of the scheme. The Urban Playground was installed at Fen Court from June to August, with related vinyls on the façade of the neighbouring vacant Fountain House. Walking tours explored various LFA installations, including the Urban Playground, and a family activation day was held on 15 July at Fen Court which attracted 124 attendees – triple the recorded number during the same period the previous week.

2025

In 2025, four new wayfinding totems were installed outside the Eastern City’s main viewing galleries through a collaboration between the London Festival of Architecture, the Eastern City BID and the City of London Corporation. Designed to reflect the distinctive lines of the surrounding skyline, the totems connect key destinations across the Eastern City and feature bespoke bases that encourage visitors to pause and engage with the streetscape.

Chosen through an LFA 2025 design competition responding to the theme “Voices”, the winning concept incorporates quotes from an audio installation celebrating personal and collective stories tied to local buildings and public spaces. The totems now stand at The Lookout at 8 Bishopsgate, Horizon 22, The Garden at 120 and Sky Garden.

Enhanced Cleaning & Jetwashing

Alongside the Ambassadors who monitor and report environmental problems such as litter, cleanliness and graffiti to ensure that these issues are resolved swiftly, Eastern City BID funded 176 additional hours of jet washing from the City of London’s cleansing team in key hot-spot areas over the course of three months in the summer of 2023. Primary locations were Fenchurch Street, Fenchurch Street Station and Leadenhall Street to address a decline in cleanliness resulting from post-pandemic cuts to the statutory services, increasing footfall and outdoor summer eating & drinking. Due to the marked improvement, although with scope for more, in February 2024 we developed the concept further and began a 9-month trial of a more significant enhanced cleansing service. This was equivalent to a 40% uplift on the baseline provision with four additional staff Monday-Friday and a night-time jet-washing regime two days a week.

Enhanced Cleaning Services

Following a successful trial, we entered into a two-year contract with the City of London Corporation to provide an uplift in the baseline street cleaning service. This equates to three extra daytime cleaning personnel and two nights a week of jet washing in the winter; and an extra four daytime cleaning personnel and three nights a week in the summer.

Cleaning routes are focused around areas of heavy footfall such as Gracechurch Street, Liverpool Street Bishopsgate, Fenchurch Street and Eastcheap.

The Clean City Awards Scheme

Additionally, The Clean City Awards Scheme was set up in 1994 to develop partnerships with all types of City businesses by raising the profile of responsible waste management. It recognises and rewards good practice by encouraging businesses to ‘Reduce, Reuse and Recycle’ and has four categories including: Air Quality and Climate Action, Communication and Engagement, Resource and Circular Economy, and Plastic Free City.

Eastern City BID, in partnership with the neighbouring Aldgate Connect BID, sponsored the Plastic Free City award in 2023; an initiative that helps City businesses to reduce their reliance on single use plastics.