Places to Tread Lightly

This means that everything, from the basil in your salad and the mozzarella in your starter to the sustainable wild salmon in your main course and the strawberries in your truly British pud, has been left to grow until it reaches its peak of ripeness or maturity. All waste, including food and any packaging, is recycled, so your leftover salad will become the compost which grows tomorrow’s tomatoes. It’s a tasty example of the healthy state of British cuisine.

(69 Swinton street, London WC1X; + 44 (0) 20 7812 1842 ; booking@acornhouserestaurant.co.uk ; www.acornhouserestaurant.co.uk).





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Terra Plana’s 99% recycled trainers help you travel in green style. Buy a pair of funky trainers or hot high heels at Terra Plana’s Covent Garden store and you are likely to be stepping out in reused t-shirts, fireman’s trousers, coffee bags, car seat leather, jeans and rubber scraps from the factory floor. Put on a pair of these shoes and put your best foot forward – these shoes were definitely made for walking... And running and jumping. 

(124 Bermondsey Street, London Bridge, London SE1; +44 (0) 207 407 3758; 64 Neal Street, Covent Garden, London WC2H; +44 (0) 207 379 5959; www.terraplana.com).





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Once you’ve seen the Beefeaters at the Tower of London opposite, hop over Tower Bridge to City Hall. You’ll be able to see London’s stunning skyline and say hello to the Mayor of London in his iconic green HQ.
A sweeping spiral ramp takes you 10-storeys up - all the way to the top. By day its steel-and-glass skin shimmers in the sunlight, by night its interior skeleton is lit up for all to see. The whole structure is built to consume 25% less energy than a regular office building, thanks to its scientifically-designed, sloping-sphere shape which conserves heat in winter and keeps things cool in summer. Bureaucracy has never been quite so beautiful or so clean.

(City Hall, The Queen’s Walk, London SE1; www.london.gov.uk/gla/city_hall).





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London may not be known for its glorious sunshine but it still receives enough to power the Solarshuttle, sailing you around Serpentine Lake with no CO2.
For a unique view of central London, forget dodging joggers and swap dry land for a peaceful potter on the water by jumping on this unusual craft. Whatever the weather, the Serpentine Solarshuttle generates all its energy from its solar-panelled roof to power itself around the lake in the heart of Hyde Park (and any excess electricity gets fed into the national grid). It’s a stylish and green way of getting around, just like Eurostar’s new carbon-neutral journeys, which get you from Paris to London in only 2h 15.

(The Boathouse, Serpentine road, Hyde Park, London W2 ; +44 (0)20 7262 1989 ; www.solarshuttle.co.uk).





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The Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew may be a peaceful place to visit when London takes its toll, but its main purpose is conserving the planet in all its green glory. Inside Kew Garden’s Victorian Palm House are 100s of tropical plants; you’ll find the world’s oldest pot plant, a cycad which arrived in 1775, happily growing older near the feather-like tamarind plant, the secret ingredient of Worcester sauce, one of England’s favourite condiments – it transforms cheese on toast into a gourmet dish (deserving of a Michelin star… almost).

(Kew, Richmond, Surrey TW9; +44 (0) 20 8332 5655 ; info@kew.org ; www.kew.org).





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