Home » London Sights » The Memory of Summer on Walthamstow Marshes

The Memory of Summer on Walthamstow Marshes

December 4, 2011 By

Now that the weather in London is getting quite wintry, and before the blog becomes hopelessly festive, I thought I would dredge up some photographs I took of a particular area of London during the summer, which I haven’t had the opportunity to talk about until now.

London is one of the world’s greenest cities, and not just because of the carefully manicured public parks which were established during the Victorian era to benefit public health. There are also still large areas of un-adopted ‘common land’ across the suburbs which are a draw for dog-walkers, horse-riders and kite-flyers.

The subject of these photographs is Walthamstow Marshes, which is bounded to the north by Coppermill Lane, to the south by Lea Bridge Road and to the west by the River Lea.  It’s an area of Special Scientific Interest (an SSI) because of the rare plants in the area and just like Wanstead Flats, which is another of my favourite open spaces, is a very peaceful and quiet place to visit whatever time of the year you choose to go there. Why these areas don’t see more use I can’t quite fathom, but in a way I’m glad that they don’t – you can pretend that you’re off somewhere deep in the countryside, if only for an hour or two.

Filed Under: London Sights
About Pete Stean

Pete Stean is a London-based writer and photographer. He can also be found on Twitter and on Google Plus.

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