News 06•16
Behind Every Great Florist at Chelsea Flower Show
This is the year of the Flower Market. To celebrate, we took the market to the biggest and most prestigious flower show in the world; RHS Chelsea Flower Show. Our wholesalers have been supplying the show for decades, but this year it was their turn in the spotlight.
We were there to tell the story of the market behind every great florist. The market that flowers London supplying and supporting its independent florists. The market that isn’t closing, but that’s moving just down the road. And getting a new, fresh, modern home.
165,000 people visited the show over the week and, at times, it felt like they were all on our stand! The response was overwhelming. We had fantastic coverage on the BBC (several times) and ITV, features in The Telegraph, Evening Standard, The Independent, The Times, The Express. And we could go on. Seven million viewers watched our story on TV and over six million read about us in the papers. And that doesn’t include radio, online or social media.
And if the response from the media wasn't enough for us to get excited about, our stand also won a gold medal and the Best New Design Award.
A big thank you to VINCI St. Modwen, our development partners, for supporting our exhibit. A big thank you to Veevers Carter, our creative designers and one of the Flower Market’s most devoted customers, who brought the story of our wholesalers and customers to life, while paying homage to HM the Queen on her 90th birthday. And a big thank you to our wonderful wholesalers for their generosity in supplying the beautiful flowers, plants, foliage and sundries. A true team effort.
And to top it all off, as you can see in the photo, the Queen paid us a rather special visit. All in all, not too bad for our first time at Chelsea.
Works update
This month, the construction team have been busy with works all across the site. There have been some comings and some goings.
The two external stairwells at the Pavilion end of the Fruit and Veg Market have been fully demolished, and we’re just about there with the Pavilion. Soon, we’ll be repositioning the road here, moving it closer to the buildings, to make way for construction on The Pavilion site.
In July, we’ll start demolishing the external stairwells at the Thessaly Road end of the market. Remember, at both ends, we have built new stairwells inside to replace these external ones.
On the comings, the New Flower Market is growing every single day - or maybe that should be every hour, it’s quick. The team are putting up the white steel structure and have two more thirds to build. You can follow all the progress live via our time lapse camera by heading to brand.newcoventgardenmarket.com/news and clicking on ‘The New Flower Market Construction’.
At the Multi-Storey Car Park the scaffolding is coming down and we’re now starting to apply the cladding, the building’s façade. Not long to go now and the Multi-Storey Car Park will be fully refurbished.
Main Exit closure
STARTS Saturday 9 July
ENDS Saturday 13 August
On Saturday 9 July, we have to close the Main Exit to vehicles for five weeks. During this time, you can still enter via the Main Entrance, but you will need to exit via the Flower Market Exit.
We’re sorry for the frustration this may cause, but, unfortunately, there is no other way. We need to close off a lane so we can resurface the road for the new Entrance Plaza.
Diversion signs will be in place. For cars leaving the Multi-Storey Car Park, you’ll need to turn right on exiting. More details are on our website, and in flyers and emails that we’ve sent out. Please get in touch if it’s at all unclear.
Construction Programme
Click on the image to view a larger version of the construction programme.