Cool streets and greening in the Square Mile

Phase 1 of the project identified existing schemes where additional funding could improve the climate resilience of them. These include:

• Vine Street: planting an avenue of street trees to provide a shaded route to eliminate street-level overheating. Vine trees were select for their resistance to pests and diseases. Completed March 2022.
• City of London School: drought tolerant planting at the riverside planters outside the school.  Completed May 2022.
• Bevis Marks, Dukes Place, Creechurch Lane: sustainable drainage and tree planting, supporting the City Cluster Vision. Completed April 2023.
• Cheapside Sunken Garden: permeable paving and climate resilient planting as part of the Greening Cheapside Sunken Garden project. Completed July 2024.
• Jubilee Gardens: In-ground, climate resilient planting, new trees and sustainable drainage as part of the City Cluster Vision improvements. Completed February 2025.
• Trials of climate resilient planting in a number of planters and parklets.

Phase 2 followed a similar approach to Phase 1, identifying sites at a slightly earlier stage of design. The projects identified in this phase were:

• Bank: planting street trees, in-ground planters and rain gardens along Queen Victoria Street as part of the All Change at Bank project. Completed April 2024.
• Finsbury Circus Western Arm: creating raised plant beds, biodiverse planting, sustainable drainage systems and seating as part of the Re-landscaping Project, now linking Moorgate to Finsbury Circus. Completed March 2025.
• Little Trinity Lane: creating rain gardens, channels and footway reprofiling for surface water management, new trees and hedge planting. Completed April 2025.
• Finsbury Circus Gardens: re-landscaping as part of the Finsbury Circus Gardens project to create rain gardens, increase greening, introduce new habitats, lay new paving and create seating.
• Barbican Podium: monitoring the environmental impacts of the Barbican Podium Renewal's Phase 2 plans to increase greening of the area by 75%.
• Temple Avenue: planting new trees and introducing planted areas.

Phase 3 of the programme identified 22 new locations across the City to plant trees, increase the resilience of gardens and planting to mitigate the risks of climate change and promote biodiversity. Alongside an ambition to convert more grey areas to green. The aims are to improve the quality and connectivity of the City’s green spaces, and target improvements at the most important ecological sites, known as Sites of Importance for Nature Conservation. To achieve this Phase 3 will:

• Undertake an ambitious programme of tree planting across the Square Mile between 2023 and 2025.
• Review planting in a number of City Gardens to improve its climate resilience and biodiversity value.
• Extend green space and soft landscaping at five priority locations.

SuDS are effective for managing surface water resulting from rainfall and help to minimise the risks of flooding from surcharged sewers. We are developing proposals for greening and creating SuDS across several sites in the Square Mile.

Phase 4 of the Cool Streets and Greening project involves designing SuDs schemes for up to six locations between 2025 and 2026. Some of the locations with proposed developments:

• Ludgate Broadway: creating a rain garden, planting trees, widening pavement and raising carriageways and crossings at junctions. We will replace the temporary ‘parklet’ with a permanent design.
• St Andrews Hill: creating a rain garden, planting trees, relocating cycle stands and a parking bay.
• Bread Street: creating a rain garden, planting trees, relocating cycle stands.
• Knightrider Court: extending the pavement in front of the café, creating a rain garden and relocating disabled parking bays.
• St Andrew Undershaft Churchyard: to harvest rainwater from the Church roof to water new planters and planting beds. We will add more seating and improve the layout.
• Lloyds Avenue: creating a rain garden and planting trees along the Eastern Edge.

If you have any comments about the proposals, please contact the Policy Projects Team.

Underground space in the City is often congested, filled with utilities, basements, tunnels, railways and archaeological remains. This means that some climate resilience projects, such as tree planting and sustainable drainage, can be more complex than anticipated.

The City Corporation, in partnership with the British Geological Survey and the UK Climate Resilience Programme, carried out a year-long research project to better understand how underground space can be used to improve resilience to climate change. Read more about the Cubic Mile project .

The project finished in November 2022 with a policy summary and recommendations for implementation published on the NERC Open Research Archive.