14 July 2011 

Japanese bank Nomura at One Angel Lane is now the buzzing new home to two bee hive colonies. Housing up to around 150,000 bees, this initiative not only offers support to pollinators but also inner city young people in London. 

“I am excited about working with the bees at Nomura,” said Ezekiel, one of The Golden Company’s young beekeepers. Lakshmi, the second Golden Co. young person who’ll service the hives added “From the rooftop we can look out across the river to Borough Market where we sell our produce. It’s great to see how everything from working with the bees to produce honey to selling the final product is so close together.”

Nomura is housing the bee hives on the roof of the their 11 storey European headquarters right on the Thames and offers both nectar and pollen resources on site with two lush roof gardens, one being the largest roof garden in the City of London. Staff are also invited to observe the regular hive inspections, providing an opportunity to connect with nature on the bank’s own premises.

The bank has agreed to purchase all the honey made on site from The Golden Company and will use the honey at client breakfasts and morning meetings. “We are delighted to host the bee hives and support such a great organisation.” said Tony Bartle, Head of Real Estate and Services EMEA at Nomura.   

Press Release:  08.03.11

One Step Bee-yond! Suggs backs Urban Beekeeping Project!

One of London’s most famous music studios The Premises Studios with The Golden Company, a social enterprise organisation, and Madness lead singer Suggs are backing campaigns to encourage people to learn how to look after our bees, especially in urban areas. 

London has a seriously declining bee population, which has decreased by around a half since 2008. To help re-populate the capital with bees The Premises Studios installed a hive on their roof in Hackney and now, with the warmer weather and sunnier days arriving, the hive is coming out of its winter quiet and the bees are beginning their busy year. Premises Managing Director Julia Craik says:

“We established a hive and a colony of bees on the roof here as part of a campaign to encourage more people in urban areas to look after these gentle but amazingly productive insects. Honey-bees are in danger due to a number of environmental factors including the increasing recent prevalence of the Varroa Destructor mite.”

Suggs, who has been rehearsing with Madness at The Premises, has been interested in bees for many years and says “As experienced urban beekeepers my wife and I know how fascinating keeping these amazing creatures can be and how important it is to look after them in managed hives like the one at The Premises Studios.  Beekeeping is a crucial part of looking after our environment so both the bees and our planet continue to thrive".

To do the beekeeping The Premises are collaborating with a local organisation, The Golden Company, who work and beekeep with young people from diverse backgrounds, providing them with opportunities to learn sustainable business skills and take an active part in running the enterprise.

To many people’s surprise, urban honey is often far tastier than country honey. Bees fly up to 3 miles to collect nectar and the parks and gardens of city environments provide them with a huge variety of flowers resulting in more complex flavours in the honey. One thing anyone with outside space can do to help the bees is to plant bee-friendly flowers; these include Chamomile, Sweet William, Foxgloves, Chives, Sage, Borage, Cornflowers and Dahlias.

A little known fact is that bees sometimes communicate to each other through “quacks” which are always in G#.  Julia says they hope to record this noise some time soon!

http://www.premisesstudios.com/blog/suggs-and-the-premises-launch-urban-beekeeping-campaign

http://www.thegoldenco-op.com