Crossrail Roof Garden

Now one of London’s biggest sky gardens, Crossrail’s roof garden at Canary Wharf station sits two storeys above the waters of the North Dock of West India Quay.  British architecture firm Foster + Partners designed the roof structure and cladding that houses the station’s leisure complex. Beneath the 310-metre hood style roof is the garden, featuring a number of exotic plants. Landscape architecture firm Gillespies, which previously designed the sloping garden at 20 Fenchurch Street, was chosen to lead the project. 

Featured in Gillespies’ plans were several curved paths designed to lead visitors around the entire garden, ensuring they can view all of the unusual tropical plants housed in the space. This meant that edging was required that would be strong enough to withstand increasing amounts of pedestrian traffic but also provide enough flexibility to fit the curved path. For this reason, Kinley’s AluExcel edging was selected by the client. As well as its flexible properties, installing AluExcel does not necessarily require concrete as a foundation or support. This was an additional benefit for the client, saving time on the project. 

Having already selected 285 lengths of Kinley’s AluExcel 25mm & 65mm edging during the planning stages, Gillespies supplied contractor firm Blakedown Landscapes with the exact specifications for the edging. Blakedown then ordered the edging to be ready for installation to ensure timely project completion. 

Benefits of Kinley’s involvement 

Kinley’s AluExcel edging provided several key benefits to the client. Firstly, as a lightweight aluminium, it is significantly stronger than competitor materials. These traditional methods of path edging typically use bulky concrete pin kerbs that waste valuable space in the planting area due to their size and the fact that they have to be bedded and supported with concrete. The pin kerbs are also much heavier; one person can lift only 1 metre. In comparison, 25 metres of AluExcel can be lifted at once. AluExcel is also a ‘green’ material that is made from recycled aluminium and in turn is easily recyclable.