The Fleet Street Quarter Business Improvement District partnered with Square Mile Farms to create a community-led pop-up urban farm. Running throughout June, the pop-up was open to the community to harvest sustainable and local herbaceous produce, fully funded by the Fleet Street Quarter (FSQ) BID.
An innovative new approach to reinvigorating the Fleet Street Quarter’s ground-floor offering, the urban farm activated a vacant retail unit to provide an experiential and educational high street hub for the community, with the space also hosting a series of interactive workshops.
A forward-thinking pilot activation, the Fleet Street Quarter intends to encourage occupiers to take on urban farms across the area to utilise empty units through sustainable, community-led and experiential retail.
The urban farm used self-watering hydroponic towers and walls, producing more than 1,000 supermarket-sized salad bags of ultra-fresh greens across the month and workers, residents and visitors were invited to pick their crop.
After London hosted the 2023 Ecocity World Summit, FSQ’s pilot Urban Farm is at the centre of community-led initiatives in the area that inspire environmental change and boost wellbeing. School and community workshops discussed the importance of sustainability in the City and showcase health-boosting recipes.
The Fleet Street Quarter is a major Business Improvement District established in April 2022. Encompassing an area which features Fleet Street at its heart, but embracing fascinating areas such as Chancery Lane, Holborn, Ludgate Hill and New Street Square, the Fleet Street Quarter aspires to shape the whole area into a thriving place to live, work, and visit.
Partnering with Square Mile Farms aligns with the BID’s wider goals of engaging with local businesses and creating a connected green community; empowering all those who work, live and visit with an educational hub that promotes health and wellbeing.
The BID aims to create a strong business collective, providing a powerful voice for local businesses, enhancing the physical environment, injecting new energy into the area, and creating a safer and cleaner destination for all who live, work or visit the area. The BID acts as the custodian for the Fleet Street Quarter businesses, promoting it as a destination of choice for business, culture and leisure. Contributions from the BID levy paying community will see the BID invest over £12 million directly into the area to stimulate, develop and influence a comprehensive improvement over the next 5 years.
Set amongst a backdrop of beautiful architecture, the Fleet Street Quarter is home to a whole host of iconic cultural locations, hotels, restaurants, bars and cafés. St. Bride’s Church, Dr. Johnson’s House and London’s Silver Vaults can all be found in this historic home of journalism.
There’s also a great variety of pubs to be sought out in the Quarter, including Editor’s Tap, Old Bell Tavern, Old Bank of England and one of London’s oldest, Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese, many of which have been known to be frequented by literary geniuses such as Charles Dickens, W.B. Yeats, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Dr Samuel Johnson, creator of the first English Dictionary.
Rachael Smith, BID Manager, Fleet Street Quarter, said:
“The BIDs Urban Farm underlines the Fleet Street Quarter’s aims to foster environmental and community stewardship. An innovative solution to developing engaging retail units, the initiative exemplifies how the BID is taking a hands-on approach to promoting sustainability in the Fleet Street Quarter.
Partnering with Square Mile Farms aligns with the BID’s wider goals of engaging with local businesses and creating a connected green community; empowering all those who work, live and visit with an educational hub that promotes health and wellbeing.”
Find out more at fleetstreetquarter.co.uk