Local Wildlife Site

Wildlife

Pepys Garden is a secluded garden, which is similar to some of the smaller garden squares in the West End. It contains a number of mature trees, including a large false-acacia, a maidenhair tree and two old mulberries. A shrubbery border runs around the perimeter, containing a traditional variety of shrubs, with a beech hedge along the southern edge of the garden. Herbaceous plants have been planted along the edge of the shrubbery and in the centre of the garden there is a lawn. The liverwort Lunularia polymorpha grows in shady corners. St Olave's Churchyard is a fragment of a former larger churchyard. It has a secluded and rather humid atmosphere. It contains a few trees, several small pockets of shrubbery and herbaceous planting, and small areas of grass or carpets of Lunularia. There is a single mature hawthorn and a variegated small-leaved azara. Shrubbery includes large firethorn and magnolia, as well as hydrangea, forsythia and box. Mosses and liverworts grow on the tombstones, and ferns grow in the west wall of the garden. If these could be protected from herbicide, some interesting species might be found. Blackbirds and woodpigeons nest in St Olave's garden, and blue tits nest to the east of Pepys Garden.

Facilities

Information; sculptures/ monuments