Coutts Bank Rooftop Garden Tour

Coutts, the private bank and wealth manager is today unveiling its urban kitchen garden, consisting of over 9,000 organic plants including vegetables, fruit, herbs and edible flowers growing on the roof terrace of its headquarters in central London. The living and breathing vegetable garden formed of over 350 metres of planters and located at 440 Strand, is 30 metres above street level, with views directly over the National Gallery and St. Martins-in-the-Fields.

The Coutts ‘Skyline Garden’ includes over 100 different species growing in three tonnes of compost, including five varieties of potato through to white Alpine strawberries; usually sourced via Parisian street markets. All of the produce is being used daily by Executive Chef Peter Fiori in the kitchen serving guests. Plants were all grown from seeds planted in the spring, and today form a meadow like practical terrace, with the 70 strawberry plants producing almost 70 kilos of fresh berries over the summer.

The rooftop allotment consists of produce including rhubarb, radish, turnip, Cavlo Nero tomatoes, celery, red, yellow and Bulls Blood chards, sea kale, chives, lemon verbena, Salad Burnet and parsley. The produce list will constantly change as space becomes available and seasonality dictates.

Peter Fiori, Executive Chef at Coutts commented: “This project has far exceeded all of our hopes. Not only do we have access to the ultimate fresh produce for the kitchen, which is picked at exactly the optimum size, taste and texture but there are other benefits too such as reduced air and road miles. We can honestly say that all of our recipes contain some element of the garden and we cook using the produce that is ready, from lemon verbena to flavour the Crème Brûlée to edible flowers to decorate the plate.”

To encourage pollination and biodiversity, a number of flowering plans have been introduced including

Lavender, Roses, Lobelia and Fuchsias which have been attracting wildlife including a community of honey bees, which are suffering from a lack of flowers in London. Ladybirds and other sensitive and beneficial insects are also finding a new home on the roof garden.

The bespoke wooden planters were made by offenders at HMP High Down. This initiative is just one of many that The Clink Charity runs to provide offenders with skills and qualifications to help them on release. Other initiatives include The Clink restaurant - which is open to the public - offering culinary training for offenders by resident and Michelin-starred chefs, courses in horticulture, carpentry and beekeeping. Re-offending rates for those who have taken part in the scheme are significantly lower than those who haven’t.

About Coutts

Coutts is the Wealth division of Royal Bank of Scotland Group. Coutts serves clients from over 40 offices across the world offering tailored wealth management, banking, trust and tax services. Coutts is headquartered at 440 Strand, London with offices in other key international financial centres in Zurich, Geneva, Hong Kong, Singapore and Dubai. The division includes Adam & Company providing private banking services from its base in Edinburgh and RBS International based in the Channel Islands which provides offshore banking.

• Photo ID will be requested to enter our building to match name on booking.
• No pictures to be taken indoor, however picture authorised outdoor during Skyline garden tour.