Designs for the East London Waterworks Park and ponds by architect Kirsty Badenoch
(Picture: Kirsty Badenoch)Local residents in east London are bidding to turn an ex-water depot into a wildlife haven complete with the UK’s first ‘naturally self-cleaning’ swimming ponds.
The East London Waterworks Park (ELWP), a small volunteer-run charity, want to transform the 5.68 hectare industrial site on the border of Hackney and Waltham Forest, into a community-owned park.
Surrounded by the marshes and next to a nature reserve, the ELWP argues rewilding the concrete site would be the “final piece of the jigsaw” and connect up the open spaces of the Lea.
ELWP chair Abigail Woodman said: “Local people have got together to do this, to buy this site for the community and create a biodiverse landscape that everyone can enjoy. There will be two Olympic-sized ponds and some really amazing Victorian buildings that will be turned into community spaces.”
The vision is for the ponds to be filled with rainwater and cover an expanse of 5,000m, welcoming over 1,000 swimmers a day for no charge.
With no source of spring water, like that used at the Hampstead Heath ponds, the proposals will be based on the “principles” of a natural pool. The proposal is partly inspired by the temporary natural pool at Kings Cross, built in 2015, which was entirely treated by aquatic plants and filtration.
Woodman explains: “The ponds will be filled from rainwater, which will filter through reeds to give it a first clean and then it will filter through a particular plants. It’s a well known approach used particularly in Germany but it isn’t very popular in the UK at all.”
But there is a long road ahead to turn the dream into a reality. The first step for the group is to try and buy the site which is currently owned by central government and according to ELWP is valued at approximately £20 million.
The group thinks the project has a social value of approximately £16 million, and it is seeking to raise £3 million to show the government is is serious about buying the site, which has been identified for disposal. Its crowdfunding campaign has raised over £100,000.
ELWP hopes to raise the rest through trusts, foundations and corporate donations.
It has already produced a pre-feasibilty report and an inclusivity study into the site and has backing from the London Wildlife Trust, the CPRE, Trees for Cities and “in principle” support from the Mayor of London.
The government bought the site with plans to build two free schools, but the plans were rejected in 2019 due to the fact the land is classified as Metropolitan Open Land and protected from development.
Until the 1960s the Thames Water Site was part of the Lea Bridge Waterworks, providing water to London with a complex of 25 filter beds served by an aqueduct bringing water from the Walthamstow reservoirs further north. Today, the Middlesex and Essex Filter Beds are nature reserves.
Woodman added: “I see the East London Waterworks Park as a place for all Londoners to visit. From an inspirational perspective, if Londoners can collectively support projects like this, wherever they appear, it gives it gives us all hope that we can all transform where we live.”
