Headed to London? Check out the Bees!
Special to Road Trips for Foodies
From St. Ermin’s Hotel, London
The St. Ermin’s Hotel, Caxton Street, London, England — home to more than 350,00 Buckfast Honeybees — is holding a series of urban beekeeping workshops during the summer months. Led by beekeeping guru, Camilla Goddard of Capital Bee, the workshops will be held around the hotel’s six hives, and will take place April 20, 2019; May 11, 2019; May 25, 2019; August 10, 2019; August 21, 2019; September 21, 2019, and October 5, 2019.
The two-hour workshops outline the complexities of bee society and ‘bee-haviour’; highlight the close relationship between bees and flowers, and give guidance on what to plant, when and where and how best to site hives in gardens or allotments. All workshop participants are provided with full bee keeping suits and gloves.
Participants also visit London’s first ‘Bee & Bee’ hotel on the hotel’s third floor “bee terrace” to get hands-on experience handling bees, managing their hives, and collecting raw honey.
“The St Ermin’s six active hives are doing well again this year, producing on average 25 lb of honey each year, helped by the fantastic range of flora in the surrounding royal gardens and parks. London’s only Bee & Bee at the hotel is also doing well, providing a welcoming stopover for solitary bees and a host of other friendly creepy crawlies,” said Camilla Goddard of Capital Bee.
Hotel guests are able to view the bees through glass walls on the third floor walkway corridor.
As well as their continued support for London’s growing Urban Beekeeping movement, the St. Ermin’s Hotel has also recently installed a Roof Kitchen Garden. Featuring plenty of bee-friendly plants for the colony to utilize, the new working area also features greenhouses and space to grow fresh fruits, vegetables and herbs for use in the Hotel’s restaurant, The Caxton Grill. The home-grown produce will be used throughout new Executive Head Chef, Alexander Boyd’s seasonal menus – which also feature sweet hints of St. Ermin’s honey throughout.
St. Ermin’s is part of Autograph Collection Hotels with more than 90 luxury lifestyle hotels around the world.
(Photos courtesy of St. Ermin’s Hotel)
