As Bristol-based fitness and sustainability influencer Flora Beverley takes her Pollinator Pathways project from strength to strength, it seems there’s not much that she won’t turn her hand to. Words by Bethan Andrews.
From ultra-running to sustainable renovating, there’s not much that Flora Beverley can’t do. With 130,000 followers on Instagram and a YouTube channel with 50,000 subscribers, she’s a doer, a communicator and she clearly loves a challenge. When it comes to working hand in hand with our planet, Flora truly flourishes. For Flora, it’s always been about highlighting that there’s power in community.
“I started my Instagram 15 years ago with photos of food, as I was recovering from an eating disorder. It was a way of keeping myself accountable and there was a nice community on there at the time,” she explains. “I wasn’t really into sports but I started playing squash competitively so I was sharing my training. It was about showing this as a non-sporty kid and about being relatable, because on Instagram you would only see people who were very good at things.”
A running battle
From here, Flora became known for fitness and her ability to represent ordinary people taking on challenging things. After running her first road marathon in 2019 and becoming injured, she found trail running, and later, ultramarathons. Despite injury setbacks and a chronic illness diagnosis, Flora continues to race where she can. It might feel unattainable to so many, but she tells me how a favourite aspect of her job is encouraging people to try things they may not feel they can do. “People are bored of how fake Instagram can be and how people try to curate their image. I make an effort to show the bad bits and the realistic parts,” she says. “Although I’m experienced at ultra-running, I’m in no way elite. It’s nice for people to see that I train hard, but that I also get injured, and I spent the last two years being ill – I want to show people that. Ultra-running has been a male-dominated space and I’d like to change that.”
Today, Flora’s influencing career focuses on combining this mission to inspire people to challenge themselves with her passion for running, food and sustainability. It’s this jigsaw combined that led her to buy her first home here, despite growing up in London. “Bristol is all the best parts of London with amazing access to green space,” she smiles. “I can run to the countryside, and if I go directly south I can be in the Dundry Hills within 3 kilometres – the Thames path doesn’t quite cut it!”
Naturally, she’s found some favourite spots. “I think Visit Bristol needs to hire me,” she laughs. “The amount of comments I get on my Youtube videos being like, ‘where is this?!’ and people are shocked when I’m like, it’s literally in Bristol! I love Blaise Castle and how wild it feels, and I spend a lot of time in Ashton Court and Leigh Woods. The towpath I love, as well as Conham River Park.”
Pollinator Pathways
For Flora, though, it was the condition of her local neighbourhood, alongside her interest in the interaction between people and nature, and how we get that in urban environments, that sparked her recent project, Pollinator Pathways.
“South Bristol is very grey and could do with some love and attention,” she says. “The community here is lovely, but some individuals don’t always take care of the places they live in. While people were doing litter picks, it wasn’t enough to touch the sides – we had broken bottles, beer cans, cigarette butts, and burnt-out motorbikes. All of this was in our local alleyway and it’s the route that people take to school and work. I knew some were interested in fixing it, but it needed a bigger concerted effort.”
I might not be able to solve world hunger… but I can clean up the space I live in
At the time, Flora was doing a course on nature-based solutions and was interested in seeing how nature could benefit not just the environment, but also the community.
Having discovered that front driveways and paving over green spaces are a huge problem, Flora received a grant from a US organisation to de-pave front gardens. After working with four houses on her road, she had the idea to do the alleyway clear-up.
“I got a grant from the Knowle West Alliance for £250 to convert one of the alleyways into a more wildlife-friendly space. I organised the first weekend in September, and we got masses of help from, not only volunteers, but people donating planters and plants, too,” she explains. “We completely transformed the alleyway into a bright, beautiful space and we found that as soon as it looked like people took care of it, others were far less likely to chuck stuff there.”
Flora shared a video on her social media, and the post went viral. “I was actually never going to show it on social media, it was just something I was doing for myself at a time when I needed to take my mind off not running much,” she says. “I posted to encourage people to do the same in their local area. It can be easy to feel helpless and that nothing you do will make a difference to your life or anybody else’s, but it’s where the community aspect really comes in. “I might not be able to solve world hunger, at least not directly, but I can clean up the space that I live in and I can help people’s mental and physical health, while also helping the wildlife.”
From Ashton Gate to local art
Most recently, Flora was asked to do a Pollinator Pathway for Ashton Gate Stadium. Since then, she’s worked on another huge alleyway in Knowle which has incorporated nine local artists doing murals with gorgeous planters donated and filled by Artisan Landscapes. “It’s all themed on nature and community, and so many volunteers turned up that we only needed one day to do the work, instead of the three we expected,” she beams.
With another three alleyways planned for June, I wonder where Flora hopes to take the project. “I’m relatively planless,” she laughs. “It very much depends on grants but we’ve just created a website where people can donate, which would tide us over between grants. Long term, I’d like to create a blueprint to inspire others. If I can help to encourage people and spread that out UK-wide, it would have a massive impact on communities and the environment. We’re bombarded with negative press every day and there are a lot of rubbish things going on in the world, but community is a really powerful tool for action.”
There’s something infectious about Flora’s positive energy, but I can’t help but wonder if she ever steps back. “I’m incapable of taking any time off, but I enjoy my job and this project,” she smiles. “It’s very mentally restorative and gives a lot back.”
It’s clear that Flora cares deeply, and that nurturing is in her DNA. Maybe it was written in the stars all along. Flora was, after all, the Roman goddess of flowering plants and wildflowers. One thing is for sure, we’re excited to see where this project can go and feel lucky to have Flora helping our community to flourish. A greener, safer and happier city? Watch this space.
pollinatorpathways.co.uk | @foodfitnessflora
