We look after all of Westminster’s parks and gardens, open spaces, social service sites and highways sites. The character of the parks varies greatly, from the busy West End parks, such as Soho Square Gardens, Leicester Square and Victoria Embankment Gardens, to the more residential parks, such as St. John’s Wood Church Grounds Garden, Paddington Street Gardens and Porchester Square Gardens.

We also maintain Marble Arch and Hyde Park Corner, at either end of the busy Park Lane.

We are responsible for the provision of the grounds maintenance of the parks and in a number of sites we provide a permanent staff presence.

The busy South section experiences a huge daily influx of tourists, business people, politicians and local residents. On an average day Leicester Square has a ½ million footfall passing through. Working in Westminster has many challenges, demonstrations, protest marches, film premiers and events such as Pride in London, London marathon and New Year’s Eve Fireworks. Summer concerts are held daily in the Victoria Embankment Gardens and many of the other parks host events, particularly during the summer months.

The north section of the contract is more tranquil. The nature of the parks and gardens tend to be centred on the local community. Many of the parks have playgrounds, and Continental Landscapes do all the repairs and maintenance as well as the quarterly and annual ROSPA inspections.

Continental Landscapes maintain all of Westminster’s Housing estates. A dedicated team of gardeners maintain the housing estates to a very high standard to ensure they are pleasant and safe places for the residents to spend time.

Three of the estates hold the Green Flag Award.

We have worked hard with Westminster to develop these sites, including installing habitat features such as wildflower meadows, bug hotels and loggeries.

Certain pocket parks have been transformed into scent gardens, wildlife parks and allotment areas.

Continental Landscapes Ltd manage and maintain the City of Westminster’s cemetery service. The three cemeteries are all outside of the borough, with two traditional Victorian cemeteries in Hanwell and East Finchley, and a post-war lawn-style cemetery in Mill Hill.

In addition to maintaining the grounds, Continental Landscapes also run the bereavement service from the Hanwell office, arranging funerals and maintaining the cemetery records.

All 3 cemeteries hold the Green Flag Award and have had repeated successes at London in Bloom over the past few years, with both East Finchley and Mill Hill winning gold in the Large Cemetery category.

In Hanwell and East Finchley Cemeteries, a number of burial chambers were installed to increase the interment capacity.

Continental Landscapes are responsible for the design, supply, planting and maintenance of the seasonal bedding displays in Westminster. Twice yearly we plant over 250,000 bedding plants, with a further 100,000 spring flowering bulbs in the autumn.

The bedding displays contain numerous feature and dot plants, which provide a riot of colour when in full bloom.

The exotic planting scheme in the Victoria Embankment Gardens features mature tropical and sub-tropical plants from around the world during the summer and draws visitors into the gardens who come to admire the stunning planting display.

Westminster attracts over a million visitors a day and the seasonal bedding displays add enhance the visitor’s enjoyment of the gardens.

At the end of the season, all the bedding plants are composted and the compost produced is used to enrich the soil for future bedding displays.