Local Wildlife Site

Accessible Sites of Importance for Nature Conservation

Butterfield Green & Shakespeare Walk Adventure Playground
Borough: Hackney
Grade: Local
Access: Free public access (all/most of site)
Area: 1.71 ha

Description

Butterfield Green is an attractive little park, situated in an area lacking accessible wildlife sites. It is divided into three sections by roads. All three parts contain several areas where enhancements have produced valuable wildlife habitats. The well-used Shakespeare Walk Adventure Playground occupies the middle section of the green.

Wildlife

The main, eastern part of the green is mostly amenity grassland with scattered trees and a few shrubberies. A small nature area provides the best wildlife habitat on the site. This is mostly young woodland. A variety of native trees and shrubs have been planted, including elder, ash, hawthorn, sycamore, hornbeam and rowan, beneath which is a dense ground flora of ivy. A glade in the middle of the nature area contains rough grassland and tall herbs with couch, stinging nettle, black horehound, bittersweet and bristly oxtongue. The play equipment in the Shakespeare Adventure Playground sits among rough grassland and tall herbs, with scattered elder scrub and a few trees. Grasshoppers and other invertebrates abound around the adventure playground in the summer, while the western part of the green is mostly amenity grassland, with scattered trees and a few shrubberies to provide habitat for birds.

Facilities

Adventure playground; toilet
Grasshopper © Jason Gallier

Grasshopper © Jason Gallier

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More information on GiGL’s SINC dataset can be found here.

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