Length: 6.8 km (4.2 mi) [or 5.0 km/3.1 mi with the Manor House ending]
Net Walking Time: 1 ½ hours
Meet at 11.00 outside Finsbury Park
Station (Main Line Services from Kings Cross or St. Pancras I'nal, and Victoria and Piccadilly
Lines).
Return trains from Stoke
Newington Overground go to Liverpool Street or to Enfield Town or Cheshunt (in
case of track work-related closures on the day: buses will take you to L’pool
St as well). Manor House is served by the Piccadilly Line.
Woodberry
Wetlands is a Thames Water-owned and London Wildlife
Trust-run urban nature reserve on East Reservoir, one of the two Stoke
Newington reservoirs on the New River (which – famously – is “neither new
nor a river”). The reservoirs were built in 1833 to hold water from the New
River, a man-made canal supplying drinking water to London from springs near
Ware in Hertfordshire. The reservoir had been off-limits to the public for more
than 180 years until 2016, when Woodberry Wetlands and its fantastic café in
the former coal house opened. The route starts with a meander through Finsbury
Park before entering the Wetlands and then continues along the New River past
the West Reservoir to Green Lanes, to then lead south, then east through Clissold Park (and its café in
Clissold House) and along the very charming Stoke Newington Church Street
to Abney Park cemetery (one of
the most splendid and enlightened of the ‘Magnificent Seven’ London garden
cemeteries) and from there to Stoke Newington Overground.
An Alternative Finish goes north from the
West Reservoir along Green Lanes back to Manor House Underground (or even back
to Finsbury Park Station, this adds 1.4 km)
Please note: Dogs are not allowed in the Nature Reserve.
Lunch/Tea: umpteen cafés and 3 pubs en route (see webpage or pdf for details).
For summary, map, photos, walk
directions and gpx/kml files click here.
T=short.26
2 comments:
If you turn left for the circuit of the reservoir look out for the swans nest which a couple of weeks ago had a decent clutch of eggs which now may well be hatched.
15 at the station (incl. 3 first-timers) plus 1 other 15 mins behind due to the Thameslink Central London stretch being snarled up (a broken rail at St Pancras), ie n=16 in w=sunny weather.
Delightful weather, plenty of people out and about, indeed with nesting swans on the New River (thanks, Pete B), also with some bluebells and some wild garlic (in the cemetery).
A couple stopped at the cafe on the reservoir, others dropped out on Stokey's thoroughfare for food or drink, 8 eventually had lunch (solid or liquid) at the Three Crowns.
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