The London Traveler

Images of London often feature red buses or black taxis. But a new colour is revolutionising the capital – green.

Ken Livingstone put London on the Green map with the amazingly energy-efficient ‘Testicle’  – City Hall. Now, Future London is launching a Green Tour of London. I spoke to Cate Trotter, who leads the tours.

LT – Where did the idea come from for your green tours?

Cate – I have a background in ethical marketing and ecological design, and since we do trend tours of London, I thought a green one would be exciting. We have plans for lots more.

LT – Who ’s coming on your green tours?

Cate – We have lots of professionals, architects and developers, wanting to come on our tours, as well as individuals.

LT – Okay, what are they going to see  on the tour?

Cate – We visit a vegan bus-restaurant on Brick Lane, a restyled clothing shop, we see some green architecture on the South Bank, and an eco-textile shop, as well as an innovative natural remedy store. My guideline for selecting sites is if it doesn’t interest me, then I don’t include it. At the moment, I do all the tours myself, so it’s quite a personal tour.

LT – What do you think of Boris Johnson’s green credentials? Will he turn out to be as concerned with environmental issues as Ken Livingstone was?

Cate – Well he hasn’t had time to do very much yet! Ken was really hard on carbon; it looks as if Boris is more generalist in his green thinking, but he seems to be continuing the same initiatives. And his advisers obviously realise that people think green issues are really important.

LT – But people on your tours will see ‘grass roots’ green initiatives too, will they?

Cate – Very much so. We want to show, for instance, how ethical businesses can work, how green principles can be applied anywhere. A lot of people say ‘It’s nice to be green, but it’s not practical’ – we want to show that’s not true.

LT -I’ve heard a lot about the Coin Street development on the South Bank. Could you tell me a bit about that?

Cate – It’s a project that goes all the way back to 1977, when the housing co-op pitched again a big hotel development, and won. There are four housing co-operatives, all held together by a social enterprise, Coin Street Community Builders. All the profits go into social and environmental initiatives, not shareholders’ dividends. The enterprise has created affordable housing, together with thirty retail units giving independent designers an opportunity to set up shop.  What’s really interesting about Coin Street is that it’s constantly reinvigorating  and redeveloping; it’s created a truly sustainable community, not just some green buildings.

LT – Is the message about being green getting through to architects at last? Looking at the Gherkin, the new City Hall, and some other high profile buildings, I get the impression that it is.

Cate – Well, yes, the message is getting through to architects, but not always to their clients. Many architects are still saying  that they’d love to be greener, but the cost rules out going all the way to fully sustainable building practices. So there’s still a lot of work to do.

The first three Future London  green tours are already fully booked – but there will be two more, on 28th June and 6th July. Each tour takes 8 people, and will cost £10. On 6th July, there’s a chance to see inside City Hall, and catch the view of London from the top floor, too.

Photo credit -  Cate Trotter of Future Tours. The photo shows the Downings Roads moorings,  currently threatened with closure.  It’s one of the top recycling communities in London, with over 75 percent of its waste recycled rather than going into landfill.

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