Plant Power Mural

We started our restoration work at 195 Mare Street with a bad wall in the front garden — covered in crumbling pebbledash, graffiti and dead ivy. As we learnt about the history of Mare Street, we discovered Hackney's extraordinary botanical past.

On the other side of the street, near St Thomas' Square, Loddiges Nursery imported and traded plants from all over the world for nearly a century. It was one of the largest nurseries of its time, introducing new species to Europe — wisteria, bamboo, hydrangeas.

Inside 195 Mare Street, there are traces of flower wallpaper. Ferns above doors, leaves inside cupboards and roses around fireplaces. The house and garden must once have been filled with plants from Loddiges.

Our bad wall gave us the opportunity to retell Loddiges' story, bringing colour and nature back to Mare Street. The movement of plants is a great metaphor for the diversity of the people of Hackney, who have migrated here from around the world.

Mare Street is home to many people from south-east Asia and there are thriving Vietnamese businesses all around us. So we chose to paint cây tú cầu / 繡球花 — hydrangea. With origins in China and Vietnam, it honours our neighbours and their migration to Hackney.

And we found the best botanical mural artist in the world to paint it: Thiago Mazza, whose homeland is Brazil — where many of Loddiges' plants came from.

In September 2023, assisted by local artists and art students, Mazza painted an iconic mural for Mare Street.