World Environment Day Activities in London

Every year on the 5th of June, World Environment Day rolls around and most of us have roughly the same thought: we care, genuinely, but we're also not entirely sure what to do about it beyond feeling a bit guilty and reading some headlines. The good news is that London in early June is full of ways to actually mark the day in a way that feels meaningful rather than performative, and some of them are genuinely brilliant fun on top of everything else. Here are three ideas for this year, plus one very special thing happening right outside Art Play in Shoreditch that you'd be daft to miss.

Unconventional Bonus: Come and Paint a Fish on Our Community Canvas

On the 6th of June, outside Art Play, 3 Norton Folgate, Shoreditch, E1 6DB, we're inviting everyone to come and paint a fish on our community canvas as a mark of hope for the planet.

No booking needed, no artistic experience required, just turn up, pick up a brush, and add your fish to something bigger than yourself.

Before we get into the rest of the list, we have to tell you about this because it's the kind of thing that sounds simple and turns out to be genuinely moving. The canvas will be a collective, living piece of artwork made by everyone who passes through, and it's our way of celebrating the ocean, the creatures in it, and the urgent need to protect both.

Last year we did something similar in partnership with Restor, the world's largest open-data platform for community-led restoration and conservation, where people added their handprints to a canvas alongside their wishes for the world.

That canvas went up in Old Spitalfields Market, and it was extraordinary to see what happened when you put brushes in people's hands and give them a reason to think about the planet for five minutes. People stayed longer than they planned. They talked to strangers. They wrote things that were funny and things that were heartfelt and things that were both at once. We hung it up and it meant something.

This year we're doing it again, and we want as many fish on that canvas as we can get. Each one is a little mark of hope, a tiny painted signal that you were here and you gave a moment to thinking about the world beyond your own four walls. Come at any point during the day, bring a friend or just yourself, and don't worry even slightly about whether your fish looks like a fish. That's not the point. The point is the doing of it.

Spend a Morning at Columbia Road Flower Market

If you're already in East London for the fish painting, make a morning of it and head to Columbia Road Flower Market, which runs every Sunday and is one of those London institutions that never gets old no matter how many times you go. On a summer morning in early June it's at its absolute peak, with stalls piled high with everything from English garden roses to exotic things you've never seen before, the whole street smelling extraordinary, traders doing their theatrical best to get you to buy one more bunch than you intended.

There's something particularly fitting about spending World Environment Day surrounded by flowers and plants and the people who grow them. It's a reminder that the natural world is genuinely beautiful, which sounds obvious until you're standing in the middle of it and feeling it in a way you don't when you're reading about it on a screen. The market runs until about two in the afternoon, so you can get there early when it's buzzy and the choice is best, grab a coffee from one of the independent cafes that line the road, and wander at whatever pace feels right.

Take cash, wear comfortable shoes, and go with a vague plan to buy one thing and absolutely no expectation that you'll stick to it.

Join a Community Litter Pick

This one requires slightly more organisation but pays back significantly in the sense of having actually done something concrete. London has an enormous network of community litter picking groups, many of which run regular sessions in parks and along waterways, and June is one of the best months to join one because the weather is usually reasonable and the parks are full of people who feel the same impulse to do something useful.

Keep Britain Tidy runs the Great British Spring Clean campaign which often extends into June, and local councils across London organise their own events throughout the year. A quick search for litter picks near you in the first week of June will turn up several options. Hackney, Lambeth, Southwark, and most inner London boroughs have active volunteer groups who go out weekly and are always happy to have new faces.

The thing about litter picking that nobody tells you is that it's actually quite satisfying in a very immediate way. You can see the difference you've made within an hour. You start with a messy stretch of path and you end with a clean one, and that tangible, visible change is something that a lot of environmental action doesn't give you. It's also a good way to spend time with other people who care about the same things, which, depending on your social circle, can feel like a rare and nourishing thing.

Visit the Natural History Museum's Galleries on Ecology and Evolution

The Natural History Museum in South Kensington is free, which still feels mildly miraculous every time you walk through the doors and remember it. For World Environment Day it's worth going specifically to spend time in the galleries that focus on ecology, evolution, and the living world, rather than doing the whole museum in a rush and ending up exhausted in the gift shop.

The Hintze Hall with the blue whale skeleton suspended from the ceiling is always spectacular, but it's the galleries dedicated to the diversity of life on earth and the pressures facing it that feel most relevant on a day like this. The museum has put significant effort in recent years into being honest about the environmental crisis and presenting it in a way that is informative without being paralysingly bleak, which is a harder balance to strike than it sounds.

Go on a weekday if you can because weekends in half term territory can be extremely busy. Take your time in the galleries rather than trying to see everything. There's a lovely cafe in the grounds for when you need a break, and the surrounding gardens are worth a wander if the weather is kind. It's the kind of visit that leaves you feeling more connected to the world rather than more anxious about it, and that's not always easy to find.

World Environment Day doesn't have to mean going above and beyond for the planet every year. Sometimes it means painting a fish outside a studio in Shoreditch, or buying a bunch of sweet peas from a market stall, or picking up a bag of litter from a stretch of canal path. The small things add up, and they're also just genuinely good ways to spend a day in one of the world's greatest cities.