London: East End: Bethnal Green to Stoke Newington

7 August 2015

All day

This walk not only allowed us to see a variety of sites of botanical interest, but also to contrast the friendly present-day multicultural community of, particularly, Turks and Jews, with surviving signs of an industrial and even agricultural past.

We started from Cambridge Heath station at Bethnal Green and walked north up the main road to the Regents Canal at Andrews Road.  As always in these London walks the street art was immediately evident - so accepted these days that street artists are now commissioned by businesses and local authorities to contribute further works.  This applies, for instance, to Christiaan Nagel, who began by placing brightly coloured mushrooms on various rooftops, but was commissioned by the Bar and Restaurant Ombra, which we passed, to create a whole group of them on its own roof.

At the corner of Andrews Road was a work "Based on a True Story" by Zabou, who came as a French art student to London, now lives and works as a designer here, but still continues with her nocturnal creations, this one in collaboration with Sr.X from Spain.

By the side of the canal we immediately started recording the (mostly alien) plants expected at such a site: buddleia Buddleja davidii, petty spurge Euphorbia peplus, shaggy soldier Galinsoga quadriradiata, yellow corydalis Pseudofumaria lutea, Guernsey & Bilbao's fleabanes Conyza sumatrensis &floribunda, red valerian Centranthus ruber, hollyhock Alcea rosea, haresfoot clover Trifolium arvense, wall barley Hordeum murale, gypsywort Leucopus europaeus, annual mercury Mercurialis annua and black horehound Ballota nigra.  In the canal were greater, common and least duckweeds - Spirodela polyrhiza, Lemna minor, L. minuta.

          On Andrews Road, going west, we passed Hoyles Foundry, a relic of the industrial 19th century still operating, making decorative ironwork.

Nineteenth century ironworks, Andrews Road (note the alien Canna cocacola in road verge)

Beyond here, across the canal, was a more recent relic that is no longer used and is about to be converted into new housing - the empty framework of 20th century gasometers.

From opposite these gasometers we walked north as far as Westgate Street, on the other side of which lay London Fields, even its name redolent of the long gone agricultural past of this area.  It is now a park and as we entered we passed a flowering tree of walnut Juglans regia.

But the past is not forgotten, as several constructions here made by Freeform, a community arts group, in collaboration with local schools, provided mosaic seats among memorials to the old flower-sellers and sheep, for this was once where an ancient drove road came and flocks were rested before going on the final lap to the market.  The bowler hats of the flower women give them the appearance of Peruvian Incas, an exotic touch congruent with the community.

A large part of the park has been devoted to creating an "urban meadow" by scattering a wild flower mix (almost all alien flowers) on bare, somewhat sandy, ground.  By now it was past its best but there was still plenty of colour here and there, and a bewildering variety of plants.  We were able to recognise sweet alison Lobularia maritima, common poppy Papaver rhoeas, California poppy Eschscholzia californica, cornflower Centaurea cyanus, Virginia stock Malcolmia maritima, Clarkia cv, purple viper's bugloss Echium plantagineum (incl. 'Alba'), prostrate toadflax Linaria supina, Linaria maroccana, Cosmos bipinnatus cv's, Dahlia 'Star'cv, Echinacea angustifolia; plus several that presumably came in of their own accord - marsh yellow-cress Rorippa palustris, false London-rocket Sisymbrium loeselii, common orache Atriplex patula and scentless mayweed Tripleurospermum inodorum.

Purple viper's bugloss

The colourful meadow seems symbolic of the ethnic mix of the surrounding community

Echium plantagineum 'Alba'

Cosmos bipinnatus

Dahlia 'Star' cv.

Echinacea angustifolia cv.

Cornflower

Linaria maroccana

As is usual in London parks the older trees are dominated by London plane Platanus x hispanica, with a fine avenue towards the northern end.

Plane trees, London Fields

From the north end of the park we walked across Mare Street and along Morning Lane (passing tomato Solanum lycopersicum, garden catmint Nepeta x faasenii and snapdragon Antirrhinum majus) to Churchwell Path.  This took us north along a quiet route away from the traffic and building noise through Hackney churchyard, past wall lettuce Mycelis muralis and Canadian fleabane Conyza canadensis to a play-area with a new café on the west side "Brew for Two" where we sat to eat crêpes and drink fresh water-melon juice.  Returning to the path we continued north past a line of old horse-chestnuts Aesculus hippocastanum, planted in 1797 by Harry Sedgwick to commemorate the consecration of Hackney Church that year (as is explained in a nearby plaque).

Horse-chestnuts along Churchwell Path

At the end we continued north along Lower Clapton Road (annual wall-rocket Diplotaxis muralis, hedgerow cranesbill Geranium pyrenaicum) to Lea Bridge Road, which we followed east to the bridge itself, which spans the Lea Navigation Canal.  At the bridge a path goes south by the side of the canal and over a bridge to the entrance to what was once Essex Filter-beds but is now preserved as a park (part of the extensive Lee Valley Park).  The concrete structures and ponds still remain as a memorial to this major engineering feat and provide an interesting environment for wildlife and local residents, celebrated in a work by Paula Haughney called "Nature's Throne" (1990).

"Nature's Throne"

The vegetation, in and out of the water, is dominated by rough wasteland plants and of little interest botanically, although there are large stands of giant hogweed Heracleum mantegazzianum and some large trees of fruiting fig Ficus carica.

Giant hogweed

Fig

Other plants here worth mentioning are Turkey oak Quercus cerris, Canadian goldenrod Solidago canadensis, hairy Michaelmas-daisy Aster novae-angliae, common spike-rush Eleocharis palustris, perennial wall-rocket Diplotaxis tenuifolia, water bent Polypogon viridis and the alien subspecies of black nightshade Solanum nigrum schultzii.

          We returned to the Lea Bridge and across the road was a Park, North Middlefields, where there was another expanse of sown "urban meadow", including quite a few species not seen at London Fields, such as corn marigold Glebionis segetum, chamomile Chamaemelum nobile, Linum grandiflorum and Italian catchfly Silene italica (pink and white forms).

Chamomile

Linum grandiflorum

Italian catchfly

A path beside the park and the Lea Navigation took us north a little way until we could return west along Mount Pleasant Hill.  This gave us a chance to add more canal-side plants: great water dock Rumex hydrolapathum, black mustard Brassica nigra, common polypody Polypodium vulgare, white stonecrop Sedum album, narrow-leaved ragwort Senecio inaequidens, common skullcap Scutellaria galericulata, California brome Ceratochloa carinata, all on the bank; and fat duckweed Lemna gibba, fennel pondweed Potamogeton pectinatus, rigid hornwort Ceratophyllum demersum, Canadian waterweed Elodea canadensis and south American waterweed E. callitrichoides in the canal.  In addition, and rather unfortunately, beside the bridge where we left the canal was a large patch of the very invasive floating pennywort Hydrocotyle ranunculoides, the leaves reminiscent of marsh marigold.

Lea Navigation passing Essex Filter-beds

Common skullcap

Perennial wall-rocket

Dense patch of floating pennywort

We had a long trek up Mount Pleasant Hill, passing a young fig growing in wasteland, and along Northwold Road, to Stoke Newington, where we arrived opposite the entrance to Abney Park Cemetery.  This 13-hectare woodland is kept as a local nature reserve.  Abney Park was taken over in 1840 by a nursery (Loddiges), which planted many exotic and native trees.  It then became the site for a cemetery and it is strange to walk through an environment of late 19th to early 20thC gravestones, all now toppling at various angles because of the growth of the woodland around them.  Interesting veteran trees are marked on a helpful map (downloadable) that provides a trail through the reserve.  A few of these are shown below.

Hollow ash Fraxinus excelsior near the entrance

Pollarded black Italian poplar Populus x canadensis 'Serotina'

Old hawthorn Crataegus monogyna

Rare bracket fungus Phylloporia ribis at base of the old hawthorn

Jumbled graves and old hornbeam Carpinus betulus (left of centre)

"One-legged" ash - it is still living!

Sorbus latifolia (Service tree of Fontainebleau)

Spotted thorn Crataegus punctatus

Fruit and leaves of spotted thorn. Spots (lenticels) on the haws give it its name.

Leaf near the haws has a mine of the moth Stigmella oxyacanthella.

The ground flora of Abney Park was unremarkable, given the disturbance and prevalent shade, although there was a patch of escaped garden Solomon's-seal Polygonatum x hybridum.  We saw speckled wood butterflies - the park is said to have the largest colony of these in London; also ring-necked parakeets and a brown rat (for which the undergrowth and crumbling graves must provide excellent habitat!).

          To complete our multicultural experience we walked south down Kingsland High Street and had a meal at a Turkish restaurant in Arcola Street, Mangal 1 Ocakbaşi ("ocakbaşi" is a grill room with an open fire pit with red-hot coals in the centre, a common form of restaurant in this area).