March has seen our volunteers working in the ponds adjacent to some of Lewisham’s rivers. Mid-March generally marks the common toad migration in London, and as one of our 8 priority species within Lewisham we survey the ponds and migration routes at this time of year. Our volunteer sessions changed from morning and afternoon to being ‘in the parks after dark’, one of these ponds that we surveyed was Bell Green Pond (alongside and connected to the River Pool). Common frogs, smooth newts & common toads all found, with common toads seen in mating pairs and toadspawn present.
Onto another set of ponds in the borough, but this time brand new ponds being planted up by Thames21 and our volunteers. Purple Loosestrife, Brooklime, Yellow Flag Iris are a few of the plant species that have recently been planted in.
February was a busy and very wet working month for our volunteers, we fixed brash bundles into our berm in our ongoing Ladywell Fields (middle field) project and weaved the main ‘wall’ of the structure with coppiced hazel and lime that was situated alongside the river.
For the latter half of the month we were digging out reeds, iris and encroaching grasses from the ephemeral pool alongside the secondary channel in Ladywell Fields. Although the recent wet weather made it easier to dig the soil, it was still a heavy and very mucky task to do!
Join urban sociologists Dr Emma Jackson and Dr Louise Rondel to celebrate the launch of the Place-making and the Rivers of Lewisham podcasts and project report, hosted by the Centre for Urban and Community Research (Goldsmiths).
As part of this event, you are invited to join us to walk along two stretches of Lewisham’s rivers, from Lower Sydenham to Catford Bridge and from Confluence Park (Lewisham Gateway) to Deptford Creekside and listen to podcasts with stories and soundscapes from the rivers. You are also invited to join us at Creekside Discovery Centre for the launch of the project report followed by a drinks reception.
Friday 28th June, 1pm-7pm – Various venues across Lewisham (please see event information and tickets for more details)
This walk will follow the Waterlink Way and will be on a mix of off-road paths and pavements. It will involve crossing roads. For more details see: https://www.accessable.co.uk/venues/waterlink-way
4.30pm – 7pm Report launch at Creekside Discovery Centre
While the Thames looms large in questions of the past, present and future of London, a network of 25 smaller tributary rivers criss-cross the city, shaping the landscape and impacting in dramatic and mundane ways on people’s lives. These include the rivers of Lewisham: the Ravensbourne, the Quaggy and the Pool.
Over the course of a year, the research project Place-making and the Rivers of Lewisham has conducted a close-up exploration of two stretches of Lewisham’s rivers, through the use of creative qualitative methods, walking interviews, soundscape recordings, ethnography and a review of policy documents that are relevant to blue and green spaces across the borough.
The two stretches of river we are following in the project take us through a fast-changing part of Lewisham. They thread together landscapes of newly privatised high-rise development where the rivers have only recently been opened up as part of the Lewisham Gateway regeneration, the well-established Waterlink Way Linear Park, stretches dominated by transport infrastructure and the unique ecology and heritage of Deptford Creek.
Caring for Lewisham’s stretches of river are groups such as the Friends of the River Pool, Quaggy Waterways Action Group [QWAG], the Friends of Brookmill Park, Creekside Discovery Centre, Thames21, Healthy Rivers Project and Lewisham’s Nature’s Gym. These groups meet regularly to pull on their waders, don litter pickers and bin bags, and walk the river and its banks collecting litter, weeding out invasive plants, clearing debris which impedes the water’s flow, monitoring water quality, and carrying other such essential maintenance tasks; and, of course, sharing flasks of tea and donuts.
If you have any questions or accessibility requirements, please contact the organisers: Emma Jackson and Louise Rondel e.jackson@gold.ac.uk and l.rondel@gold.ac.uk
With thanks to the Goldsmiths Strategic Research Fund for funding the project.
It’s January and the Rivers & People volunteers are back in the water! After heavy rain and storms you’ll notice that the banks collect both litter and fallen branches. some of which restrict the flow of the river and mean that the banks burst. Our group started the year at Cornmill Gardens and was busy clearing the dipping platform of debris. We also managed to collect 8 bags of rubbish and a bicycle from the banks, collected by the Glendale park cleansing team.
At Chinbrook Meadows, our volunteers continued cutting back the overhanging willows and other trees around the pond to allow more light onto the water’s surface. Whilst there we cleared an obstruction in the River Quaggy to reduce localised flooding onto the path adjacent.
New Year, New You? Don’t want to pay a gym fee to be indoors working out? Why not join us once a week in the Rivers of Lewisham? Plus, whilst you do that you are actively helping the blue spaces within the borough!
The volunteer session programme has now been released for October to December 2023. Check out the programme HERE. If you would like to get involved in volunteering on Lewisham’s rivers please read through the the River Volunteering web page, and if you have any questions or queries please get in touch with Emily.
December is a shorter month for our volunteers, and with our final and 40th session of the year taking place on December 12th we celebrated with mince pies, yule log and other snacks… after 2 heavy hours building a berm!
From me, I’d like to say a HUGE thank you to all our wonderful volunteers working to keep Lewisham’s rivers so healthy and encouraging others to learn more about this great part of the borough. A special thanks especially to the #RiversandPeople volunteers who join me every week to get waders on and get into the river to make practical improvements- I’m looking forward to 2024 where we can do even more!
One project that will continue into the new year is the new berm our group is building in the middle field of Ladywell Fields, we’ve put the posts in, weaved the frame, and we’ll be back in mid-January to build up the bank.
The volunteers have been all across the borough this month, starting with visiting the regeneration works at Beckenham Place Park (East). We also cleared trapped debris from the recent heavy rains, especially with fallen trees down over the channel.
Combining forces with the Friends of the River Pool, we thinned a section of hazel for a future project in another Lewisham Park where we needed long malleable lengths for weaving. This was a testing day of weather as the light rain predicted was actually a downpour- but the volunteers persevered.
September was a month of hot and dry weather, which was showcased by low water levels across the River Ravensbourne catchment. During this period we took our opportunity to work on the boggy areas to remove encroaching vegetation, like above, which is normally a wet area in Manor Park but had previously been overtaking by sedge, bramble and grass!
The lower water level across the month also helped us access the deeper sections of the rivers. We spent some time in Beckenham Place Park (East side) performing litter picks and clearing areas of the main channel. We found more than 25 golf balls in this stretch, along with parts of an old fireplace surround!
This month we’ve launched our brand new social media account, RiversandPeople_Lewisham, where you can stay up to date with all the work we’ve been doing on the River Ravensbourne, River Quaggy and River Pool.
You will still find our monthly ‘what we’ve been up’ blogs and any information about upcoming sessions on here, but do check out and give us a follow on Instagram to stay in the loop sooner!
Our Instagram account will be managed by one of our wonderful volunteers, Sarah, who is more than happy to help answer your queries or send you Emily’s way for anything you may want to find out.
August brought the volunteer team some hot weather, so being in the river was a pleasant break from the heat! We started the month working on the boardwalk section of Cornmill Gardens, removing plants that had grown up through teh accessible viewing platform then reducing the vegetation height so you can get a clear view of the river. One bonus from our time at Cornmill was we got to watch Lewisham town centre’s resident peregrine falcons flying overhead!
We’ve also continued the job of clearing eel tiles around the catchment, and monitored the areas where we know siltation happens in backwaters and small channels.
We were also very lucky to have Philippa Nicholls, European Eel Officer, from Thames21 come along to our group and present on London’s European Eel population and some of the challenges and obstacles they face within the Ravensbourne Catchment.
Rivers and People 