Gillespie Park is a 3.4 hectare Local Nature Reserve and

Site of Metropolitan Importance for Nature Conservation Site of Nature Conservation Interest (SNCI), Site of Importance for Nature Conservation (SINC) and regionally important geological site (RIGS) are designations used by local authorities in the United Kingdom for sites of substantive local nature ...

Highbury Highbury is a district in North London and part of the London Borough of Islington in Greater London that was owned by Ranulf brother of Ilger and included all the areas north and east of Canonbury and Holloway Roads. The manor house was situ ...

in the

London Borough of Islington The London Borough of Islington ( ) is a London borough in Inner London. Whilst the majority of the district is located in north London, the borough also includes a significant area to the south which forms part of central London. Islington has ...

. It also hosts the Islington Ecology Centre, which provides environmental education for schools and organises walks and talks for adults. It is owned and managed by Islington Council. The site is protected by

Fields in Trust Fields in Trust, is a British charity set up in 1925 as the National Playing Fields Association (NPFA), by Brigadier-General Reginald Kentish and the Duke of York, later King George VI, who was the first president, which protects parks and green s ...

through a legal "Deed of Dedication" safeguarding the future of the space as public recreation land for

future generations Future generations are cohorts of hypothetical people not yet born. Future generations are contrasted with current and past generations, and evoked in order to encourage thinking about intergenerational equity. The moral patienthood of future ge ...

to enjoy. The site has meadow and woodland areas with several ponds including the main pond and reed bed, and also there are 244 species of plants, 94 of birds and 24 of butterflies. It has a number of plants which are rare in Central London, including the narrow-leaved bird's-foot-trefoil,

grass vetchling ''Lathyrus nissolia'', the grass vetchling or grass pea, is a species of flowering plant in the pea and bean family Fabaceae. It is native to most of Europe, Maghreb, Levant and the Caucasus. Despite its common names, it is not a grass, but belon ...

and

pyramidal orchid ''Anacamptis pyramidalis'', the pyramidal orchid, is a perennial herbaceous plant belonging to the genus ''Anacamptis'' of the family Orchidaceae. The scientific name ''Anacamptis'' derives from Greek ανακάμτειν 'anakamptein' meaning 'b ...

. In 1990 it was the site of the first recorded breeding of the long-tailed blue butterfly. There is access from Drayton Park and Quill Street.

References

{{Local Nature Reserves in Greater London Nature reserves in the London Borough of Islington Local nature reserves in Greater London