Ecology Park and North Greenwich

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There was not anything but a huge area of wasteland in Greenwich Peninsula until the mid 1990s. The Millennium Project has converted it to one of the most innovative areas in London recently. North Greenwich tube station, which was opened when the Millennium Dome, looked very modern and futuristic. It was amazing to see buildings and pavement with innovative design around the station, alongside the Dome and O2 buildings. After leaving the station square, we followed the Thames Footpath and walked past one of the piers with a peculiar looking sculpture, David Beckham's Football Academy, and the Millennium Village, and looked at the Thames Barrier in the distance.

Ecology Park was on the doorsteps of the Millennium Village. Most of the residential flats were facing to the site of the Ecology Park and it allows the residents to overlook the green space of the Ecology Park and do bird-watching.

Ecology Park, as the name suggests, is a freshwater habitat, which has been created by the regeneration programme. Mark visited there with work colleagues a few months ago and wanted to come back. Thus, we decided to visit there on 4 September. We started ambling through the inner path and followed the boardwalks surrounded by the wattle partitions with several viewing platforms. We looked at the inner lake, which was home to a wide variety of waterfowls and wildlife. The boardwalks led us to the shallow pools with the Bat Tower. Myriads of wildflowers and reedbeds were thriving and pretty white waterlilies were blooming here and there on the ponds. The urban wetland seemed to be an ideal living place for a wide variety of insects such as beetles, butterflies, dragon flies, bumble bees, wasps, to name just a few. We entered two hides, West Bird Hide and East Bird Hide and looked at Tern Rafts and Kingfisher Tunnel on the Inner lake. The windows were facing to the marsh where reedbeds and wildplants, e.g. Marsh Marigold and Purple Loosestrife, which are home to nesting reed warblers and wainscot moths. The Inner lake appeared on the back of the reedbeds and wildflowers. Several ducks and coots were sitting on the Tern Rafts and swimming in the lake.

We continued walking on the boardwalks and found stunning waterlilies, aquatic plants, and countless butterflies and dragonflies flying about, and heard birds singing from the dense bushes.

Afterwards, we returned to the gatehouse and followed the outer boardwalks surrounded by the Outer lake and the Millennium Village. The outer broadwalk was laid close to the water, and it allowed us to see the waterlilies and moorhens and ducks at the very close range. Mark showed me where he and his colleagues chopped up reedbeds to improve the habitat for the Ecology Park as an part of away day project. We continued walking outside of the Ecology Park viewing the Bat Tower, deadwoods, and shingle beach, which we looked at from Inner broadwalk.

The outerpath led us to Greenwich Yacht Club. We found from the information board that Thames Path stretches to National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, and we decided to walk on the Thames Path. The riverside path led us to walk around the Millennium Dome on the tip of the Greenwich Peninsula and gave view of the opposite side, which was mixed with modern skyscrapers and brick buildings, which were the remains of the former industry. We also saw the sites where building works has been carried out for the regeneration programme. Unfortunately, the Thames Path between North Greenwich and Greenwich was partly closed. The temporary signpost directed us to return to the Millennium Way, that was near where we had started the course! It was nearly 5 o’clock, so we decided to go home from North Greenwich station.

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