Lavender Pond Community gardening with The Conservation Volunteers

Wednesday work days are a great opportunity to learn a wide variety of conservation and habitat management skills. Sessions are either run on site at Lavender Pond, which involves woodland and wetland management, or at local offsite projects which focus more on pond and wetland management. All sessions begin with an explanation of how and why we are doing the tasks that week. When working offsite, volunteers can either meet at Lavender Pond and travel with the TCV team in their van, or meet them at the worksite

If you would like to take part, get in touch with TCV Lavender Pond, see contact details on this page.

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Dates and location

Please click on the relevant date to read more about the activities on that day. You can get in touch with TCV directly if you have further queries about any of the scheduled dates or require further information.

Lavender Pond Nature Park was created in 1981 and is one of the oldest urban nature reserves in the country. The main feature is of course the pond itself with over an acre of freshwater and extensive beds of water lilies. A boardwalk allows access through extensive stands of reed, a colourful marsh area and a wet Alder woodland.

The park was created on the site of an old timber pond and the dock walls and locks still remain.

The nature park demonstrates the merits of a creative approach to urban nature conservation and has won many awards for access, wildlife value and environmental improvement. In 1982 it was the first created ecological park in London to gain the Environmental Improvement award and to become the only park with recommended status for people with disabilities in the Sensory Trusts Discovering Wildlife directory. The park became a designated Local Nature Reserve in 2006.

The park provides a resource for creative ecology and conservation. The site demonstrates how new habitats can be created for both wildlife and local people allowing contact with nature and a place where people can develop appreciation for the environment through community involvement, education and training.

The site has a remarkable variety of wildlife. Reed Warblers can be found nesting in the Reeds and even relatively rare creatures such as the Red Eyed Damselfly have colonised the park a demonstration of how important urban wildlife sanctuaries can be even in the heart of central London.

For a nature area only created 27 years ago the site is very well established. The site is wardened on a full time basis. A grant from the London Borough of Southwark year covers approximately half the running costs. The rest is met through project work and small grants many from the Friends of Lavender Pond a group of local residents and other supporters who have fundraised for the park for many years.

Lavender Pond is a key demonstration site acknowledged as far a field as Japan and Korea as a prime example of good practice in the design of new nature parks. Lavender Pond has laid down some ground rules for new urban ecological sites such as the Bow Creek Ecology Park, the new Greenwich Peninsula Ecology Park and the Wildfowl Centre at Barnes

Please bring

  • packed lunch
  • suitable outdoor clothes
  • suitable outdoor footwear

Site Facilities

  • Disabled Access
  • Parking
  • Toilets
  • Disabled Toilets
  • Nearest Toilets – Wardens hut

Lavender Pond Nature Park, Lavender Road, London, SE16 5DZ

Contact

Michael Turner

Telephone: 020 7237 9165
Email: lavender-pond@tcv.org.uk
Website: www.tcv.org.uk/urbanecology/urban-ecology-sites/lavender-pond-nature-park

Disclaimer: WISE16 publish public notices from London Borough of Southwark with the aim to encourage participation. Please visit Southwark Council’s website for further in