A ‘Letter to Nature’ in London

Nature breathes life into our cities. As part of a new campaign to highlight the importance of urban nature to our everyday lives, C40 has invited mayors, artists, cultural influencers and other thought leaders from cities around the world to write a ‘Letter to Nature’.

For C40’s Executive Director Mark Watts, urban nature means cycling through the Lea Valley, and being able to observe wildlife across the seasons. Read his ode to London’s nature:

“For me, urban nature means the Lea Valley. I’ve been cycling up and down the river Lea since I moved to London in 1996, first on route to Parliament, then City Hall, and now C40’s offices near St Pauls. Twenty-five years ago there were areas that were almost wilderness — wild growth amidst abandoned industrial heritage, locations for gangster films, whose last moments were cinematically captured in Saint Etienne’s ‘What Have You Done Today Mervyn Day?‘, before edgelands made way for the more accessible public space of our Olympic Park. I love sunrise over Leyton Marshes on early winter mornings, and checking in on the ducks as they multiply in the spring. Every now and again the flashing blur of a kingfisher boosts my day. One summer I was inspired by Jack Cooke’s ‘The Tree Climber’s Guide’ to clamber up a tree or two on my way home, raising my perspective to that of the birds. As with shop-fronts, it’s amazing how infrequently people look up and so I was suddenly invisible among the crowds. But most of all, I love the point where the Lea becomes the Thames and I am overwhelmed by a sense of the big world beyond this ancient port city.”