Towering new homes at Canary Wharf come with sky-high designer gardens

For buyers keen to remain green, this modern east London development has a special focus on striking landscapes and creative architecture.
 From £499,000: each apartment comes with access to a spa, sky lounge, private cinema, concierge, gym and underground parking
David Spittles3 May 2016

A lack of good landscaping has proved the weakest link in many a new housing scheme. However, pressure to save the planet coupled with home buyers’ fondness for all things green are forcing developers and architects to think more creatively about both landscape design and ecology.

At Wardian London, twin towers with 792 homes in the Canary Wharf area, soaring glass walls in the communal spaces enclose beautiful arrays of exotic trees, plants and flowers — a natural world inside a glass, steel and bronze structure.

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The development takes its name from the sealed glass containers invented by Nathaniel Bagshaw Ward, a Docklands physician and keen botanist, which were used at the height of the Empire to transport rare plants across the globe. Now they have inspired a series of grand architectural gestures at the east London scheme.

Indoor planting spills outwards to the verdant edges of an open-air swimming pool and sky gardens, while apartments have outdoor urban sanctuary for themselves.

City oasis: residents have the use of a open-air swimming pool and sky gardens

“Wardian Gardener” packages are available to buyers of the apartments. Priced from £13,280 the packages include design planning, limestone paving, stepping stones, bronze-coated metal planters, all-weather furniture and a range of striking ferns and succulent plants.

The homes cost from £499,000 and come with the customary array of modern amenities — spa, sky lounge, private cinema, concierge, gym and underground parking.

Call Ballymore on 0800 404 8855, or visit the impressive glass cube dockside marketing suite to view show flats and sample landscaping. big, set-back, two-sided terraces protected from the elements. Rather than mere wind-battered balconies, these are full-fledged private gardens