Queen Mary students ‘green up’ to let more sunlight into Tower Hamlets Cemetery

Students have been on a tidy-up to let more sunlight into the huge Tower Hamlets Cemetery in London’s East End as part of their annual ‘Green Mary’ project.

Volunteers took time off from Queen Mary University’s Mile End campus to help clear up the 31 acre park, which is Inner London’s largest woodland, as part of a week promoting “greener” living.

Fallen branches were removed to make the woodland more accessible and to allow more light to reach the ground to improve plant growth in time for spring.

Students Hazel Woodhead and Shobana Sivalingam and the Students’ Union also set up a stall back on campus which collected 1,000 items for Bow Foodbank.

“Green Mary week raised awareness of environment issues and living more sustainably,” Queen Mary’s facilities director Andrew Flett explained. “The Cemetery Park work has helped conserve east London’s wonderful natural habitat for future generations.”

Other events included cooking demonstrations, free bike maintenance, vegetarian food discounts and a robot giving green advice.

Queen Mary has 17,800 students and 4,000 staff at its five campuses including Mile End and Whitechapel and is part of the Russell Group of top universities alongside Oxford and Cambridge.

Mile End campus has faculties in Science & Engineering, Humanities and Social Sciences, while Whitechapel has Medicine and Dentistry.