News / bedminster
Community unites to add greenery to ‘ugly’ alleyways
A passionate resident is “greening up” south Bristol’s alleyways with community members through a sustainable planting initiative.
Flora Beverley hopes to make the area “green and beautiful” through her vision of the Pollinator Pathways Project.
The project encourages anyone to transform fly-tipped alleyways into beautiful pathways by cleaning them, putting up fencing if needed, adding in planters and even painting murals to add life to the otherwise dull thoroughfares.
is needed now More than ever
The littered alleyway with wild growth all over has now been cleared, and will soon look green and beautiful – photos: Google Maps (left) and Karen Johnson (right)
Flora and her enthusiastic team of volunteers have managed to add planters and give a habitable look to a dingy alleyway amid houses near St John’s Crescent in Bedminster.
She describes the alleyway as “ugly” and “unsafe” with broken glasses, cans, bottles and needles having been found.
Talking to Bristol24/7 on a recent afternoon, she said: “It’s not very safe for the kids and people that are walking up and down here. I thought we could make it so much better. The council used to look after this place, but they no longer do – so, it’s kind of up to us to do something.
“If we want it to look beautiful, we have to do it ourselves.”
Underestimating the costs involved, Flora admitted that the initial meagre funding of £250 was “eaten up very quickly”. But local organisations and groups have helped make her vision a reality.
Several plants were also donated on Saturday by Blaise Plants Nursery – photo: Karen Johnson
Flora added: “Planters cost an absolute bomb to make. I did not realise this when we got our funding.
“I was like – oh, £250, that’s perfect! It’s not a huge alleyway, so I thought that would go far.
“But, let me tell you, everything costs so much money! So I reached out to a couple of places. We managed to get support from The Factory of Knowle West Media Centre and they said they’d create the planters for us free of charge.
“All I needed to do was supply the materials.”
Other materials like scaffolds, paint, timber and more have all been recycled from other projects and donated from groups like the Bristol Wood Recycling Project, Dig and Rework.
Mural artist Yoli Ward-Streeter will be bringing along colleagues from a mural collective to paint on the walls of the alleyway. These walls are now being prepped into a blank canvas with white paint.
Flora hopes to transform other alleyways, especially in the deprived parts of our city, but it all depends on whether she will receive funding.
Hoping to inspire others to help and donate, she said: “I would love to do a second alleyway in this area, but what I would like to do long term is create a sort of template for other people to do similar things in their area.
“There are a lot of small pots of funding, small grants that are available to local projects that are of benefit to people and the environment.
“So, if someone wanted to do this there are a lot of things out there.”
Main photo: Karen Johnson
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