The beautiful Railway Fields Nature Reserve is a hidden gem off the bustling main road of Green Lanes, close to Finsbury Park. Railway Fields was turned into a wildlife site in 1986, having been a railway goods yard in the 1950s, and was declared a Local Nature Reserve in 1990. The Barking to Gospel Oak Railway Line follows its long southern edge and the New River forms the western boundary. An on-site classroom and visitor centre makes this a very valuable resource for environmental education. Railway Fields Local Nature Reserve won a Green Flag Award for the first time in 2004 and retained it in 2020.
Local Wildlife Site
Accessible Sites of Importance for Nature Conservation
Railway Fields Local Nature Reserve
Borough: Haringey
Grade: Borough Grade I
Access: Free public access (all/most of site)
Area: 0.86 ha
Description
Wildlife
The site has a range of different habitats including a meadow, woodland, scrub, a pond and two areas of marshland. There are a large number of plant species on the site over 200 have been recorded with several uncommon plants, both native and exotic. These include the Haringey knotweed', a hybrid between Japanese knotweed and Russian-vine, which was first described from this site. Twenty-one species of butterfly have been recorded here and since it first opened, more than 60 sixty species of birds have been observed.Facilities
Information (on-site classroom, education and visitor centre); toilet; playground
No photo yet available for this site
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