Nature capital
IT might come as a surprise, but London is teeming with wildlife. It’s also well served by those green and blue spaces that this wildlife calls home. This book from the London Wildlife Trust takes a look at those spaces.
It starts with an introduction by the ever-popular Chris Packham. Each chapter then covers a different habitat type, including parks, wetlands, woodland, grassland and, of course, that icon of London, the River Thames.
These sections have all been written by a different author, which is unusual for a book like this and it does result in a rather eclectic mix of styles. It ranges from personal accounts of the author’s experiences at a particular site (Kabir Kaul’s account of a winter spent visiting a local wetland is among the best of these), to lists of London sites and the wildlife you’re likely to see there, to introductions to a particular habitat type. It also means that each chapter is written by someone with an interest in and understanding of that habitat.
The chapter on Created Spaces is especially interesting. This covers sites that have been made by humans, such as community gardens, city farms and ecology parks. It raises the question of whether these locations can really be called ‘wild’, and what that might mean for the wildlife that uses them. It also calls into question whether there are any spaces that aren’t in some way created by humans. London’s wetlands are mostly former or current reservoirs. The largest green space, Richmond Park, is a former royal hunting ground. Even the Thames can’t claim to be free of human influence. Are there any truly wild places left anywhere?
This is a very attractive book: well laid out, with plenty of colour photos and a small section for notes at the beginning of each chapter.
The book’s subtitle is ‘Exploring nature in the city’, but this isn’t a site guide to the capital’s natural places – only a few of the chapters fulfil that criterion. If you want to plan which of London’s green and blue spaces to visit, and find out what wildlife you’re likely to find there, this isn’t the book for you. But it does provide a nice introduction to the surprising variety of habitats that can be found in this most urban of areas. Rebecca Armstrong