An award-winning planter made from recycled old lockers by Hammersmith TfL staff
If your journey through Hammersmith tube station feels more uplifting than usual, thank green-fingered TfL staff who have planted up the concourse.
The station has scooped first prize for best indoor garden in the Underground in Bloom competition, contested this year by more than 150 stations.
TfL employees Camelia Popa, Sid Hart and Jonathan Quilliam put their heads together to devise planting, based on a heritage theme to mark 100 years since the first tube gardening tournament.
On a shoestring budget, they recycled old lockers to make planters, then nursed back to health some plants which had been written off by Wheelers garden centre in Chiswick, which also runs the station’s flower stall.
Camelia Popa, customer service manager for Hammersmith stations, said: “It’s been great fun doing it, and some customers have already asked if they can buy the planters!”
Customer service assistant Sid Hart painted the old lockers to look like historic tube train carriages, and did such a good job, said Camelia, that ‘as they were being put in position, one person asked if it was going to Earls Court... and tried to get in!’
Meanwhile, the glass brick wall near the ticket barriers has been decorated with air plants, carriage wheels and a retro sign. “I can’t wait for the plants to flower,” said Camelia. “It all started with two little trees, and now we’ve won the award.”
The first Underground in Bloom competition was contested by a handful of stations on the tube in 1919. Today it attracts entries from across the TfL network, including depots.
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