Walthamstow’s Wildlife Wonders
With the new year only just starting, one of my resolutions is to explore the local area a lot more. There is so much more to Walthamstow than I have spoken about or even seen. One area that I visited in particular was the Walthamstow Marshes, a wilderness that gives us a slight break from the hustle and bustle of our normal city life. Part of the reason why it isn’t as spoken about as places like the market is because the marshes are somewhat of a ‘secretive spot’. The marsh area offers beautiful scenes along your daily walk, sporting facilities and easy routes for all of you runners out there.
Along with that, there are also a variety of places to eat dotted around the area for foodies, like me. One option is Spark Café, located at the top of Springfield Park. This café overlooks the greenery and offers coffees and freshly squeezed juices as well as salads, wraps and sandwiches. The address of this particular cafe is Spark Café, Springfield Park, London E5 9EF.
The marshes lie within Lee Valley Park, an area most commonly visited for activities like ice skating and horse riding. The landscape is just one example of the very few semi-natural wetland left in Greater London. In the marshes, there is a variety of plant communities as well as diverse wildlife. There are about 350 plant species recorded in the Marshes, this includes some of Britain's rarest plants.
From food to wildlife, the Walthamstow Marshes has been threatened through plans from groups of people to use the land for other purposes. In the twentieth century, there was talk of the route of the Victoria Line to cross the marshes at surface level. Another time when the beautiful landscape was close to being destroyed was when there were propositions to extract gravel from the Marsh by the Lea Valley Regional Park Authority. These plans were abandoned, leaving us with this recreational and wonderful area that we can easily visit now.
If you love nature and fancy exploring new areas, the Walthamstow Marshes fits the description perfectly!
Blesina Mustafa, City and Islington Sixth Form College.
