WWT London Wetland Centre

The London Wetland Centre is a wetland reserve in Barnes, southwest London. It sits on four old Victorian reservoirs beside a loop of the River Thames. The site covers more than forty hectares of reclaimed land. Before 2000 the reservoirs stood empty, but they were turned into ponds, lagoons and marshes. This was Britain’s first urban wetland project of its kind. The reserve shelters birds that live nowhere else in London. Nationally important numbers of gadwall and northern shoveler live here. Visitors can also see bitterns, pintails, lapwings, kingfishers and many kinds of grebe. The centre keeps a living collection of wildfowl as well. Lectures and events explain how to protect Britain’s wetland wildlife. In 2005 the BBC programme Seven Natural Wonders featured the site and its famous parakeets, introduced by Bill Oddie. A large visitors’ building stands on the site and is sometimes used for weddings. The reserve was voted Britain’s Favourite Nature Reserve in 2012. In 2019 it welcomed more than 190,000 visitors. Paths wind past pools and hides where people watch birds at close range. Wildflowers line the banks and dragonflies dart over the water. The whole loop of the Thames forms a green corridor around the reserve.