Our London office’s most local nature reserve has been awarded with heritage lottery funding after some input from our Landscape Design team.

London Wildlife Trust (LWT), who has managed the site since its inception in 1985, has been awarded £1,025,300 from the Heritage Lottery Fund to implement their scheme ‘From Coal Drop to Coal Tit – Camley Street Natural Park’, assuming that the project is awarded a Stage II pass when submitted. The scheme seeks to make the park accessible and relevant to the new population in the King Cross and St Pancras urban redevelopment, and ensure the site responds to the changing landscape around it. A new learning centre will engage and inspire a new range of visitors to the park. The nature reserve will demonstrate best practice in urban nature conservation; its rich mosaic of thriving habitats including wetland, woodland and wildflower meadow will support a diverse range of wildlife.

We created a masterplan to improve layout, circulation and habitat conservation and biodiversity management, and now continue to work with LWT to develop their proposal for a new visitor centre and education facilities.

Camley Street was one of Britain’s first nature reserves and is internationally renowned as one of the first sites developed on a brown field site for environmental education. It has warded off various development plans over its 30 year history, including plans for High Speed Rail and housing development. The proposals aim to manage footfall to the important green oasis. A new bridge is being constructed to cross the canal through Camley Street Park to link Granary Square with Somers Town – LUC’s local neighbourhood. The HLF project will integrate the new LWT building and bridge into the setting of the Natural Park.

This ethos resonates with LUC, as its founder, Max Nicholson, established the William Curtis Ecological Park in 1976 on the south side of Tower Bridge, which is now known as Potters Field Park. Max Nicholson was a key figure in 20th century environmentalism, and a proponent of urban nature opportunities: a spirit that continues in the work of LUC today.