Croydon is the largest of London's outer boroughs by population, its Victorian and Edwardian suburbs giving way southward to the chalk downland fringe of Coulsdon and the Addington Hills. The mature lime avenues of the town centre, the old churchyard yews and bramble of Lloyd Park, and the scrubby chalk grassland at Riddlesdown and Kenley Common give local honey bees a surprisingly long and varied season from early hawthorn through to October ivy.
Local collectors regularly attend swarms in the mature trees of Lloyd Park and Wandle Park, in the garden hedgerows of South Croydon and Purley, in the Victorian chimney pots of the older town-centre terraces, and in the scrub-boundary hedgerows on the chalk downland at Riddlesdown and Happy Valley.
Nearest BBKA-affiliated associations to help with swarm collection and local advice.
SM4 5JD· approx. 7 km
Visit websiteBR2 9AU· approx. 8 km
Visit websiteSM7 3QA· approx. 8 km
Visit websiteAssociation data sourced from the British Beekeepers Association directory via SwarmBase.
The capital opens early on crocus in the parks, then builds on blackthorn, cherry plum and Japanese cherry through March and April. The defining London flow is lime — avenues of common, small-leaved and silver lime line central streets from Regents Park to Bermondsey, producing the distinctively pale, mineral London honey of June. Bramble and rosebay willowherb fill brownfield sites and railway embankments, and a huge secondary ivy flow carries hives deep into autumn on Victorian cemeteries and garden boundaries.
More on beekeeping in Greater LondonReport it in under a minute and a trained local beekeeper will arrange safe collection.
