Railway Fields is a Local Nature Reserve and a Site of Borough Importance for Nature Conservation, Grade I, in

Harringay Harringay (pronounced ) is a district of north London, England, within the London Borough of Haringey. It is centred on the section of Green Lanes running between the New River, where it crosses Green Lanes by Finsbury Park, and Duckett' ...

the

London Borough of Haringey The London Borough of Haringey (pronounced , same as Harringay) is a London borough in North London, classified by some definitions as part of Inner London, and by others as part of Outer London. It was created in 1965 by the amalgamation o ...

. About one

hectare The hectare (; SI symbol: ha) is a non-SI metric unit of area equal to a square with 100- metre sides (1 hm2), or 10,000 m2, and is primarily used in the measurement of land. There are 100 hectares in one square kilometre. An acre is ...

in area, it was a railway

goods yard A goods station (also known as a goods yard or goods depot) or freight station is, in the widest sense, a railway station where, either exclusively or predominantly, goods (or freight), such as merchandise, parcels, and manufactured items, are l ...

until 1967. The park also contains a pond which is most commonly the home of the

Common frog The common frog or grass frog (''Rana temporaria''), also known as the European common frog, European common brown frog, European grass frog, European Holarctic true frog, European pond frog or European brown frog, is a semi-aquatic amphibian ...

and the Blue-tailed damselfly.

Habitat, flora and fauna

Much of the site is wooded with open

birch A birch is a thin-leaved deciduous hardwood tree of the genus ''Betula'' (), in the family Betulaceae, which also includes alders, hazels, and hornbeams. It is closely related to the beech- oak family Fagaceae. The genus ''Betula'' contains ...

woodland running along part of the boundary with the railway. Denser woodland and scrub occupies much of the rest of the site. There are areas of grassland and a small pond. At the centre of the reserve, a wooden cabin provides an office and a classroom. Over 200 species of wild flowers have been recorded. This includes the unique Haringey Knotweed (×''Reyllopia conollyana'') discovered in 1987, a cross between the

Japanese knotweed ''Reynoutria japonica'', synonyms ''Fallopia japonica'' and ''Polygonum cuspidatum'', is a species of herbaceous perennial plant in the knotweed and buckwheat family Polygonaceae. Common names include Japanese knotweed and Asian knotweed. It is ...

and the Russian vine. More than sixty species of birds have been observed since Railway Fields opened.

History

The area that is now the Railway Fields nature reserve was established as a

on the Tottenham and Hampstead Junction Railway in 1868. It seems likely that the main use of the goods yard was for coal. Just under 100 years later, in 1967, the yard was closed. In 1975 it was acquired by Haringey Council for a community centre for Haringey Social Services. In 1986 it was opened as a nature park and used as an educational nature reserve. In 1990 it was declared a statutory local nature reserve. The site is protected as public recreation space in perpetuity as a

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 ...

Queen Elizabeth II field.

References

External links

Harringay online - Website for Harringay residents

Photo series by Henry Jacobs on Smug Mug

The Conservation Volunteers
Parks and open spaces in the London Borough of Haringey Local nature reserves in Greater London Nature reserves in the London Borough of Haringey Harringay {{London-geo-stub