Down the road from Lavender Pond another section of the old Surrey Commercial Docks has become woodlands and a nature reserve – the Stave Hill Ecology Park. It is a peaceful, quiet place to walk, or wander and in The Shed, the Visitor Centre, there are ideas galore about conservation, recycling, gardening – do visit!
If you arrive by underground at Canada Water, look at the Canada Water Dock and then walk along the Albion Channel and follow signs to Stave Hill.
Alternatively, if you visit by car, park in Timber Pond Road and walk up Dock Hill Avenue to Stave Hill itself where there are several entrances to the Park.
Stave Hill is an artificial hill created in 1985-89 from rubble when the docks were filled in. From the top of the hill there are views to Canary Wharf, and the City.
Around Stave Hill is the Stave Hill Ecology Park which was created by the Trust for Urban Ecology and which ‘…has been designed and managed to form a mosaic of grassland, woodland, scrub and wetland habitats which support a wide variety of wildlife…’. In the Park there are paths through open grassland with ponds, and woods, and everywhere there are wild flowers.
There are roses everywhere.
Bird boxes are dotted around the woods.
The woods are amazing – we are less than 6 miles from Trafalgar Square!
Grassland clearings are unexpected, filled with light and flowers.
In the shade on the edge of the woods there a myriad of beautiful tiny flowers – just take time to look.
And next time I am visiting The Shed Visitor Information Centre.
You may be interested in
Stave Hill Ecological Park and here