Wetlands

The Walthamstow Wetlands project grew from our 2008 Upper Lee Valley Landscape Strategy, and was developed with Kinnear Landscape Architects to meet the diverse interests of the client group of LB Waltham Forest, Thames Water and London Wildlife Trust. Opening 200 hectares of operational reservoirs to free public access, the Wetlands is a nature reserve connecting paths along the valley, with public facilities at its heart.

We designed a visitor centre within the Victorian pumping station, to house a café and exhibition, and learning and events spaces. The sturdy brick pumphouse has been gently repaired, with new steel gantries threaded through, to connect the rooms and offer views over this landscape of water, woods and marshland. A new brick tower housing swift boxes and bat roosts has been built on the existing chimney plinth, signalling the transformation of the site from infrastructure to ecology.

The proposals were focused and honed with the project partners, in order to achieve substantial public benefit with a modest construction budget. Since the buildings and landscape were already distinctive, they have been treated with a light touch. What capacity they had has been adapted for economical and flexible operation, helping to build the long term sustainability of this significant new community resource for East London.