Mudchute Park and Farm is Tower Hamlets 2nd Local Nature Reserve (LNR) designated in April 2003.

There are two local Nature Reserves (LNRs) in Tower Hamlets, Mudchute Park & Farm and Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park: www.towerhamletscemetery.org. Both sites are also identified as sites of Metropolitan Importance for Nature Conservation (MINC).

Mudchute Park & Farm LNR is a unique facility in the Isle of Dogs, providing hands on contact with farm animals and nature for people of all ages, & is the largest city farm in Europe.
Mudchute Park & Farm LNR is made up of grazing pastures, wildflower banks, woodland, hedgerows, ponds and a nature trail. Mudchute offers itself as a place for both wildlife and people to enjoy!

Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park LNR opened in 1841 and is the last of the magnificent seven - cemeteries created by act of parliament in response to London’s rapid growth of population and the over crowed condition of urban burial grounds.
The Cemetery Park has an outstanding variety of wild plants and animals as well as plants which give clues to its history. These are recorded in regular surveys to monitor the biodiversity of the park's populations. There are 25 butterfly species and about 35 bird species. Some of the trees still maintain the original planting scheme, but have become part of dense and less-dense areas of woodland within the park. Wildflowers and bushes fill in the undergrowth.

Both sites are designated as Local Nature Reserves and recognised as sites of Metropolitan Importance for Nature Conservation.
They both also provide a facility that isn’t too common in London and are therefore great sites for wildlife to thrive and people to enjoy. The wildlife and ecology of the two sites are important on a London wide scale.

Tower Hamlets Local Nature Reserves for all.

This is a 3 year English Nature (include the following link here: www.english-nature.org.uk) funded post through their Wildspace! Scheme, which is lottery money from the New Opportunities Fund www.nof.org.uk This money has helped to fund the post of Kenneth Greenway the sites Local Nature Reserves Officer to work between the two LNR’s. The grant also provides money to support project work such as path upgrades, interpretation, and piloting a new conservation grazing scheme at Mudchute Park & Farm

Nature on the Mudchute.

Mudchute offers a wide variety of habitats to wildlife from its wooded areas to the wildflower banks and hedgerows.

“A visit to Mudchute Park and Farm is like a safari, if you keep a keen eye out you will certainly spot things of interest that will amaze you. Try visiting at different times of the year and watch Mudchute Park and Farm change with the seasons and offer new experiences to the wildlife enthusiast.”

Many birds are found on the farm such as long tailed tits, wood pigeons, robins, sparrows, magpies, Whitethroat, Linnet, Blue tit, dunnock, Blackbird, Song thrush and the tiny wren.

Many mammals enjoy the farm such as bats, hedgehogs, foxes and field mice.

A wide variety of plants are found flourishing amongst our banks and wooded areas such as:
Comfrey, Common Mallow, White dead nettle, hop, Shepard’s purse, oxeye daisy, garlic mustard, snow drops, bluebells, wood anemone, wild garlic, cyclamen, birds foot trefoil, yarrow, toadflax, black horehound, chicory and spearmint to name a few.

These plants in turn attract a wide variety of insects such as butterflies like the small tortoiseshell whose food plant is nettles, the Red Admiral whose food plants are nettles and hops, the Brimstone whose young feed on buckthorn and the Peacock who also favours nettles and hops.

It’s not just butterflies attracted to the farm we also attract lots of other minibeasts such as: Ladybirds, hoverfly’s, parasitic wasps, beetles, grasshoppers, bumble bees, moths, spiders, lacewings, millipedes, shield bugs and leafhoppers.
There found all over the Mudchute feeding on plant material, hunting others and collecting pollen.

During autumn in the months of October and November you can expect to find mushrooms and toadstools such as puffballs, Jew’s ear, ink caps and oyster mushrooms. Most are not poisonous, but a few are fatal. If picking for food it’s good to know what you’re doing.

Many of the trees on the Mudchute have been planted, but a few have made their way here on their own such as Elder, Buddleia, and sallow a type of willow.
The planted trees are numerous in their species such as Rowan, Silver birch, Hawthorn, Oak, Ash, beech, alder, poplar, cherry plum, hazel, hornbeam, wild cherry and lime.