Stoke Newington to Hackney Wick

June 25, 2019 Comments Off

Sue McCarthy continues our journey along the Capital Ring on 30th June – from Stoke Newington to Hackney Wick

The stretch between Stoke Newington and Hackney Wick may be one of the shortest sections of the Capital Ring but it is certainly richly varied.

We start on the old Roman road to Lincoln but soon leave it to walk downhill through residential streets to Springfield Park – an early twentieth century public park created from three late C18th villas. At the end of the park we reach the River Lea at Springfield Marina where the Capital Ring joins the Lea Valley Walk and we follow the Lea for the rest of the walk.

The Lea once divided Middlesex from Essex and is now the boundary between the London boroughs of Hackney to the east and Newham and Waltham Forest to the west. We walk along the towpath separating the River from Walthamstow Marshes. Saved from development in 1980s they are now a Site of Special Scientific Interest as one the last surviving natural marshlands in the London area – a home to over 400 plant species, many small mammals, birds and invertebrates. Once common grazing lands, they are once more grazed in summer, so if we are lucky we may see the small herd of Belted Galloway cattle that take up residence each summer,

The Yellow Terror, on the other hand, is neither flora nor fauna but the nickname of the tri-plane that A V Roe invented and constructed under the railway arches that cross the marsh. When it flew 900 feet across the Marsh on 23 July 1909 it was the first all-British powered flight.

Now mostly recreational and increasingly residential, this part of the Lea was once heavily industrialised with many timber and furniture factories nearby, now marked only by local street names such as “woodmill” and “larch”. One of the last to go was the old Matchbox toy factory, now replaced by bright boxy flats. We make a brief visit to the filter beds that once purified drinking water from the river and are now a nature reserve

The last leg of the walk is along the Hackney Cut and our surroundings change again. We pass along the edge of the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park and as we conclude our walk at Hackney Wick we are right back in urban east London with cafes, improvised art installations, graffiti and a few vestigial remains of local industry.

It’s a great walk and there is always something surprising. The last time I walked along here I was a bit taken aback by some of the “wildlife” I encountered! Why not join me on 30^th June and see what we encounter