Greenwich combines the world-heritage grandeur of the Naval College and the Royal Observatory with the broad lime avenues of Greenwich Park and the marshy margins of the Thames below Blackwall Point. The park's ancient veteran sweet chestnuts and limes give local honey bees a rich early-summer flow, while the ornamental gardens of the Ranger's House, the allotments behind Crooms Hill and the scrubby rough grassland of Blackheath supplement the season from April through to a strong late ivy flow on the parkland boundary walls.
Greenwich collectors attend swarms in the veteran sweet chestnuts and limes of Greenwich Park, in the Regency and Victorian terrace gardens of Crooms Hill and the town centre streets around Greenwich Church Street, in the riverside gardens and old warehoused conversions at the creek mouth, and along the scrubby hawthorn and elder margin of Blackheath where the open common meets the park wall.
Nearest BBKA-affiliated associations to help with swarm collection and local advice.
SE1 7JU· approx. 8 km
Visit websiteBR2 9AU· approx. 9 km
Visit websiteDA14 5AW· approx. 12 km
Visit websiteAssociation data sourced from the British Beekeepers Association directory via SwarmBase.
The capital opens early on crocus in the parks, then builds on blackthorn, cherry plum and Japanese cherry through March and April. The defining London flow is lime — avenues of common, small-leaved and silver lime line central streets from Regents Park to Bermondsey, producing the distinctively pale, mineral London honey of June. Bramble and rosebay willowherb fill brownfield sites and railway embankments, and a huge secondary ivy flow carries hives deep into autumn on Victorian cemeteries and garden boundaries.
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