Alaska Buildings

As from 1st May 2020 G.I Landscapes (UK) Ltd are very proud to announce that they will be the grounds maintenance contractors at ‘Alaska Buildings’ in Bermondsey, London.

Below is a great article written by Laura Reynolds detailing the history of the building.

If you’ve ever got the 78 bus through Bermondsey, you may have noticed this building. Situated at 61 Grange Road, it's set back from the road, hidden behind modern warehouse-style apartments. The dated brick arch and information board are the only real clue to its history.

'1869' reads a plaque on the arch; that's the year the original building was built (not the white art deco tower that demands attention today.This was a 1930s replacement). The stone arch, carved with a seal, is all that remains of the former sealskin trade factory.

The company was established in the City of London in 1823, under the name Oppenheim, before changing hands and moving to Bermondsey. By 1873, it was owned by a CW Martin, who gave his name to the business from this point on. Where it now says 'Alaska' in those beautiful elongated scarlet letters, the previous building once read 'Martin's' — photos from those days are sadly lacking — and was the centre of the London seal fur trade.

View of the building from Grange Road.

The seal skins were initially imported from Antarctica, and later from Alaska and Canada. Unhairing, dressing and dying of the furs was undertaken at the factory which employed a tenth of all the fur workers in the United Kingdom in its peak.

According to an article from the Sunderland Daily Echo and Shipping Gazette of 27 May 1912, the factory was forced to close for a week due to a workers' strike at London's docks, meaning nothing could be imported into or out of the capital.

The factory came up with the Martin-Blau method of fur cleaning, and was enlisted to clean Queen Mary's coronation robe in 1937.

If the style of the building looks familiar, the 1930s tower and extension was designed by the same company responsible for the better-known Hoover Building (1933) in Perivale, Wallis, Gilbert & Partners. In the same way that the Hoover Building got involved in the war effort by manufacturing aircraft parts, Martin's lent its workers, skills and machinery to the cause. 345,000 sheepskins were reputedly prepared for RAF and US Air Force flying suits, and flying coats and specialist clothing were also manufactured here.

Historic photo on the Southwark Council information board to the left of the arch. Date unknown.

Although much of Bermondsey was damaged during the second world war, this particular factory was offered a reprise in the form of a bomb which failed to detonate.

Little is known about the factory after the second world war, except that the decline of the fur trade due to changing fashions led to its closure in the 1960s.

Today, the building is split into apartments, complete with communal water gardens. Perhaps surprisingly, it's not a listed building.

BY LAURA REYNOLDS

Leybourne Park and us

It was late July 2016 when I took my first walk around Leybourne Park.

I was accompanied my the FirstPort property manager at the time, Anna Mercer. She had called me a few weeks earlier to ask if we would take a look at one of her sites, with a view of maybe taking it on, if we could meet the budget, etc.

We had a long walk round and my first impression was, ‘Wow. Where do we start?’ But the further we walked around the site, I started to look at the estate a little differently; to consider how nice it could look with a little bit more care and attention. The structure of the planting was all there, with nice shrubs and hedgerows. It just wasn’t looking as it could, or should.

Then, the feeling I usually get while looking at new sites kicked in. I want to make this site look sharper. I want to make this site look cleaner. I want this site to get, what we call, ‘The G.I. Treatment’.

Over the next few weeks a few emails were sent back and forth, our tender was submitted and we continued about our business. Anna phoned me on a Friday afternoon, towards the end of August, to let me know that G.I. Landscapes had been successful and she wanted us to start the contract, returning the site to standard, by November.

7 November 2016: Work starts on returning the estate to standard, with Carl on hedges

We were on site for two weeks, doing our best to return it to standard. Two 3-man teams worked hard to get the site back on track and let the residents of Leyboure Park see what we were all about.

Residents were more than happy to see us, especially having a presence on site everyday for two weeks. And once we had completed the ‘back to standard’ operation, the whole place looked 100% better, despite it being during a very messy time of year. November and December can be constantly damp, with leaves falling every day.

We continued with our fortnightly visits over the next few months. As the spring of 2017 arrived, Anna and FirstPort, who were working alongside a few residents, including Ray, added a few extras to the contract, to improve further.

We now had extra work orders, to visit the site on the week were weren’t due for maintenance, to check bin stores for rubbish and remove if needed. We were also given the job of emptying the dog waste bins. (Well, someone’s got to do it!)

In June 2017, Anna left FirstPort. This was a shame because we had a good working relationship with her and she knew exactly what she was getting from us. She loved our work ethic so much that she contacted us again after moving to another management company and continued to use as on a number of her estates there too.

It wasn’t until the end of July that year when I had my first meeting with the new property manager for Leybourne Park. Her name was Georgia Roberts (now Oxley), and during my first site meeting with her, I could tell how determined she was to win over some residents who were now on the backfoot a little, what with Anna leaving.

They thought that Anna was the first property manager to make things happen on the grounds maintenance front, and they were annoyed she had left and didn’t want their estate to go backwards again.

Little did they know that it was from that point on, the site would go from strength to strength.

Lance clearing payments around the estate during the first visit

One of the blocks on Ingram Close

Towards the back end of 2017, the Residents Association, along with Georgia, really started to get their heads together to find more ways of further improving Leybourne Park, bringing the community together on the estate.

Darren Toby, FirstPort’s regional manager, was also getting more involved. The company were donating things, such as a Christmas tree. Ray, who was running things for the residents, started having regular meetings with myself and Georgia. And we were receiving feedback from lots of residents, both good and bad, about what they liked and what they thought needed improving with regards the grounds maintenance and landscaping.

This is something I love getting involved in. It has always been a big plus for me, hearing the opinion of people on our work.

We’re proud of our high standard of work and never run away from a meeting with a resident to discuss any issues that arise. Nine times out of ten, there is an answer to a problem, and the sooner they are spoken about and put on the table, the better.

It was really starting to feel like everyone at Leybourne Park was pulling together, including the residents, the management company and the contractors. Georgia was a massive part of why this was happening.

2019 saw some massive improvements to the site. It also saw Gary, another resident, become more involved, working alongside Ray to provide another view of how things could be improved.

One of the big changes was the addition of weekly visits during the growing season. This was something I spoke to Georgia about on a number of occasions. She had mentioned that some residents often asked why Leyboune Park didn’t look quite as sharp all year round, as with other local estates that we looked after. The answer was very clear to us. Fourteen days between visits on a site the size of Leybourne Park during the growing season just wasn’t enough. It was as simple as that.

We put a new tender together for the residents which would now include all of the little extras that had been added during the previous two years, plus the new weekly visits between March and October each year.

When this was accepted, we knew this was the action that was really going to make a difference. We were so pleased the residents had made the correct decision in putting it in place.

Leybourne Park’s residents have been crucial in making vast improvements to the site.

During 2019, new planting was introduced to the estate, as well as repair works to the play areas, the installtion of new bollards to help with parking, and hedge reductions.

FirstPort have donated new trees to the estate, existing trees have had Christmas lights put on them, new frog and bear bins have been installed in the play parks – the list goes on.

Leybourne Park has even had visits from the local council and had the local papers taking photos of the improvements and interviewing the residents about all the hard work they have put in over the past few years.

But it doesn’t stop there.

More improvements are being discussed at the moment, including roundabout revamps, more planting and further improvements to the parking situation.

Leybourne Park as it is today.

To wrap up, Leybourne Park is a totally different estate now to the one I walked around with Anna back in 2016.

It’s now more inviting, not just to work in but, hopefully, to live in too.

It also proves what it is necessary to have in place if you want to improve any estate: a good management company, with a great property manager in Georgia; residents like Ray and Gary, who are passionate about where they live and don’t mind giving up their time to get results; and, of course, decent contractors in place.

We are looking forward to continuing to play our part in the ongoing improvements at Leybourne Park.

We’re 40 years old. Here’s our story so far

2019 marks our 40th year in business. Let us take you back to where it all began.

After negotiating the raucous demands of selling goods in London’s Covent Garden Flower Market, Geoff Idle escaped to the country, largely unscathed.

At the age of 27, and with a new born baby on the way, the frenetic pace of market life gave way for a new job at the local garden centre near to his family home in Bexley, Kent.

After a few years learning the ropes (and more than a few plant names), and encouraged by his new employer, it wasn’t long before Geoff bought himself a little Honda Acty van and took the plunge to go it alone.

This was back in 1978. The vision: to grow a business specialising in the supply and maintenance of interior and exterior plant displays.

A year later, G.I. Landscapes was born. “Yes, it’s not the most imaginative name but it was borne out of necessity more than anything else,” says Geoff. “A neighbour of mine, John Clayton, who set up Leonard Lifts, had to put something down on a joint quote we were working on to win a grounds maintenance contract for a few hospitals in East London. So, I stuck with the name purely for convenience.”

Geoff’s sons Adam and Tom, clearly excited about their Dad’s new venture

Cold calling and word of mouth was the name of the game during that early period. And aided by his Dad, Fred Idle who worked a few days’ a week – and a switch from the Honda to a Mazda pick-up truck – Geoff won many jobs in the centre of London. Hairdressers, car showrooms, West End restaurants, and the offices of airline firms (not least Iran Air) all wanted on-trend interior plant displays. And G.I. Landscapes delivered.

The business continued to grow during the 1980s. The grounds maintenance and landscaping side of the company became established, and Geoff took on his first full-time staff in Michael Garland.

The period also saw the company’s foray into the estate agency market, winning a new contract to supply plants and a maintenance service for Jacksons Estate Agency, a burgeoning property firm that was about to engulf the South East.

By the late 1980s, Geoff and his family had moved out of Bexley to Wilmington, on the outskirts of Dartford. The site maintenance work grew thanks to an ongoing relationship with Crest Homes. Peter Stokes (senior) joined the ranks part-time.

And now, a team of three women (including Geoff’s wife Diane), and two small vans were patrolling London and the South East, responsible for looking after the plants in some 50 Jacksons high street stores.

Just one of many van models – sporting one of many re-brands – tried out by G.I. Landscapes

The 1990s saw another shift in the evolution of the business. Changing fashions (coupled with a general panic about corporate health and safety) saw a scaling back of interior plants. Now, the focus had switched.

The G.I. team, which now included Geoff’s eldest son, 16 year-old Adam, spent more time designing, developing and maintaining show homes for new housing developments. 

Helping private customers redevelop their gardens and look after them also became a major offering.

By the end of the decade, with Adam taking on more responsibility, the business continued to expand. Contracts with the likes of Sheraton Skyline Hotel at Heathrow and Crayford Motors saw a brief return to interiors, while the landscaping and maintenance service soared.

Now based in Snodland, Kent, the business looks after more than 50 estates

Fast forward to 2008, and Adam took over the reins of the business in earnest. It marked another significant shift for the company as he looked to further establish a bigger grounds maintenance service, while continuing to deliver amazing gardens for a wealth of customers. 

In October 2010, G.I. Landscapes became a limited company. 

Today, the business looks after more than 50 estates across Kent, Surrey, Essex and Greater London. Now, with 16 staff, eight vans, four maintenance teams, two landscaping teams, a project manager and contracts manager, the company continues to grow.

And the story continues.

Check out our timeline below…

Landscaping For UK's top DJ 'Nic Fanciulli'

G.I Landscapes (UK) Ltd are very excited about starting our second full landscaping project for top DJ Nic Fanciulli.
We completed our first project for Nic back in 2012/13 which was a total re landscape in West Malling, Kent, the garden was completely over grown when Nic purchased the property and needed over a weeks worth of clearance work just to return it to a blank canvas with new fences before any construction work could start.
Nic had a few requirements for his new garden such as a play area for his son, planted with established shrubs and trees and a herb/veg garden, other than that it was left to us to design and make the sloped garden look nice on the eye as well as being child friendly and useable on a daily basis for the family.
The whole project from start to finish took us just over 4 weeks which was due to some bad weather and even some snow thrown into the mix.

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Nic was very pleased with his new garden, we then put a maintenance program in place for him and continued to maintain the garden for a number of years which gave us a chance to watch the garden mature and develop as it was designed to do.

Now 5 years later we are involved in Nic’s latest project, a very interesting property he purchased earlier in the year in East Malling, Kent, the property is currently having an extension and internal works done with G.I starting on site within the next couple of months.

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Nic & myself during a site meeting discussing the new project.

We can not wait to get started on the this new project, it’s going to look fantastic once finished, it’s going to have some of Nic’s ideas involved with things his seen on his travels around the world and mix that with our own ideas here at G.I Landscapes and you can’t go wrong.

This project will be great for our current followers on social media to follow and watch unfold from day one right through to it’s completion.
If you are a big Fanciulli fan and this is something you want to see develop then start following us on Twitter: @gilandscapes and Facebook Page: G.I Landscapes, this is going to be a project well worth following!

A bit about Nic:

International DJ, Grammy-nominated producer, and owner of Saved Records.

Nic Fanciulli is a DJ, producer and label owner who has remained one of the UK’s finest exports in electronic music throughout the last decade. One of the last DJs to break through to international acclaim on the strength of his DJ’ing alone, Nic has since gone on to establish his own imprint, Saved Records, a label that remains proudly at the forefront of electronic music today. An important purveyor of international, underground house and techno, Saved has become a global brand, renowned for cutting-edge releases and standout events around the globe. In early 2014 Saved celebrated their 100th release. No easy achievement in the modern climate, which was marked by a special release and tour, delivering a mixture of the biggest names in dance music alongside a selection of the hottest emerging talent around – highlighting the ethos that the label has always stayed true to throughout the years.

A Grammy-nominated producer in his own right, Nic has worked with artists as diverse as Underworld, Kylie Minogue, U.N.K.L.E, Loco Dice, Josh Wink Hot Natured, and Tracey Thorn. He’s also produced a plethora of solo tracks that have received huge critical acclaim in addition to unleashing a heady collection of memorable remixes, including his recent rework of Hot Natured’s ‘Benediction’. Nic is responsible for a high output of a sleek, intelligent yet driving strain of house and techno, and is famed for his compilation CDs, having completed mixes for Renaissance, Global Underground, Balance, and most recently Defected’s In The House series in 2014.

Despite becoming a household name in his early twenties, Nic has always maintained a humble and down to earth approach throughout his career. Bearing a strong connection to his hometown of Maidstone and its people, Nic has been staging stellar events there throughout his whole career, perhaps none so proudly as when unveiling his own bespoke festival, The Social in summer 2013. But it is his genuine and unreserved love for the scene and bringing through new talent that has given Nic the longevity to remain at the top for so long.

www.nicfanciulli.com ::: www.savedrecords.com ::: www.thesocialfestival.com


4th Year at Gillingham F.C

On Saturday G.I Landscapes (UK) Ltd will be Sponsoring our 4th game in 4 years at Gillingham Football Club.

We sponsored our first game back in November 2015 against Bury which saw the Gill’s run out 3-1 winners with goals from Samuel, Egan and Osadebe. It was a fantastic day which all of our guests thoroughly enjoyed, we ended up making Captain and goal scorer on the day John Egan our man of the match.

2016 G.I Landscapes MOTM Josh Wright

After being so well looked after by Matt and the rest of the staff at Gillingham we returned in 2016 to sponsor the league 1 fixture against Rochdale it which the Gill’s won convincingly 3-0, this time our MOTM went too Josh Wright.

Last year we sponsored the 2-2 draw with AFC Wimbledon on the 30th December, Sean Clare who was on loan from Sheffield Wednesday claimed man of the match with two great assists.

2015 pre match with Captain John Egan

MOTM and a great guy Sean Clare after the game.

We have enjoyed all 3 of our match day sponsor packages at the Gill’s and would encourage any local business to get involved, the club really look after you from the moment you and your guests arrive, the players that you see pre game are more than willing to chat and are great with the kids and Mr Scally the chairman has always found the time to thank us for sponsoring the game and has always made everyone feel at home in the boardroom.

We are really looking forward to doing it all again on Saturday against Luton Town and hope we can continue our unbeaten run sponsoring the Gill’s!

Rochdale 2016

Working with HML Group

G.I Landscapes (UK) Ltd have been working alongside property management company ‘HML Group’ now for over 5 years.

Within our grounds maintenance profile we currently have the maintenance contracts for over 25 HML managed estates across Kent, these range from private Victorian listed buildings containing flats such as ‘Beaumont Court’ in Royal Tunbridge Wells and ‘Bayham Road’ in Sevenoaks to large 10 plus acre residential estates with large green areas such as ‘Sutton Woods’ just outside Maidstone and ‘Saxon Mead’ in Staplehurst.

HML Group also deal with plenty of new build with builders including Redrow and Persimmon Homes, G.I Landscapes have recently this year taken on new sites including ‘Highwood Green’ in Marden, ‘Waterside Bridge’ in Dartford and ‘Iwade Meadows’ in Sittingbourne.

We feel here at G.I Landscapes that we have a great working relationship with all the property managers at HML Group and find each of them very professional and pleasant to deal with, we hope our relationship with them continues to grow as it has over the past 5 years.

Block paving revamp

Tried looking block paving, dirty blocks and full of moss 

Jet washed using industrial strength cleaner and all moss/weeds removed

New sand swept in

Paving looking brand new again

Did you know: We do fences

Check out this new chain-link fence we have just erected at Chartham Primary School.

We are proud to announce....

G.I Landscapes (UK) Ltd is proud to announce that we are the official grounds maintenance contractors for 'The Goldings' at Coxheath, Maidstone, Kent.