London WildWeb

London is probably one of the greenest of the world’s major cities in terms of the amount of open space, parks and wildlife areas there are within the 32 boroughs of Greater London.

Everybody knows about the large Royal Parks in central London but an excellent website for finding information on all the other green spaces in the capital is London WildWeb, run by the GLA (Greater London Authority) and the Mayor of London.

WildWeb let’s you search for parks and wildlife areas in a number of ways, either by entering a postcode, an area name, the name of a particular borough or by the type of habitat you’re interested in such as woodland, parkland, wetland, wasteland, heathland, agriculture or scrubland. Each has sub-headings so you can refine your search if you’re looking for something specific like rivers, streams, bogs or trees.

The search will provide a long list of places in your chosen area and clicking on the various links will bring up a description of the site, what it’s used for, habitat, transport links and other general information.

Alternatively on the WildWeb homepage is an interactive map which, if you click on and then zoom into a certain part of London, has just about every park, golf course, cemetery and churchyard highlighted in dark green. Roll your mouse over these to get the name and click on it to go to that places page.

Its a comprehensive site and I think its very useful to Londoners or visitors alike who are looking for somewhere to go to spend sometime outdoors away from traffic and people, or to get some fresh air and exercise.