Stop 5 - Old River Lea

Make sure your volume is on: "Waypoint 5 - Modern Park"

Show transcript

One of the great things about Britain’s waterways is that the same river can take you through so many different environments. The river here has a semi-rural feeling…but go a couple of hundred yards in either direction and it will feel very different.

Waterways environments are a great habitat for wildlife and plants, and in the modern park you can see a wide range, protected and supported by the Park developers.

We have already seen the international plant species in the 2012 Gardens. What you may not notice are the bird nesting areas built into the river banks along the Old River Lea. These encourage riverside birds by giving safe, peaceful havens to build nests.

If you go into the north of the Park you can see more examples of habitats and environments that have been created. The reeds and grasses on the river banks there were grown on natural coir mats in Norfolk while the construction work was in progress, and then brought to site and laid in the shallow water to take root. There were 300 trucks and 380,000 individual plants, with detailed instructions about where each mat should go, like a gigantic jigsaw. The mats will eventually rot away, leaving the mature riverside water plants in place as a well-rooted and diverse ecosystem.

Continue along the path under the bridges and overhead pipes, and cross back over the Old River Lea at the next footbridge.