Читать книгу Walking in London. Park, heath and waterside - 25 walks in London's green spaces онлайн

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Londinium was tightly enclosed within its walls. After the Romans’ departure, that settlement was largely left to ruin, but a new city grew up to its immediate west, and so began the slow development of London.

Slow, that is, until the 19th century, when the city became the largest in the world, and the tight Thames-side site that had served for centuries, barely more than a couple of miles long, simply could not hold the burgeoning population. The railways enabled new suburbs to be carved out of green fields, woods and market gardens, with the last major developments, such as the Metroland of outer north-west London and the great estates around Becontree in the east, taking place between the wars.

And yet, open space survives, by a mixture of private benevolence, public planning, some luck, and the often very active and direct role that Londoners themselves have played.

Allotments, West Finchley (Walk 12)

Although most London open spaces were first created so as to give humans a place to relax rather than wildlife a place to thrive, the two often go hand in hand. It’s worth noting, too, that land which is not ‘open’, such as railway cuttings and derelict industrial sites, not to mention house gardens and allotments, can also be fantastically valuable for wildlife, precisely because human involvement is so limited.