History
The London Ecology Unit (LEU) was active from the mid-1980s to the early 2000s and brought together ecological experts from across London. The Unit advised planners, developers, and local communities on nature conservation and policy decisions. From 1st April 2000, the LEU staff team was absorbed into the newly established Greater London Authority (GLA).
During their time, the LEU established and delivered London’s rolling habitat survey programme, of which GiGL holds the resulting data in the habitats database. They also produced a series of handbooks that described the biodiversity recorded across most London boroughs. These publications identified London’s first Sites of Importance for Nature Conservation (SINCs) and formed the basis of the London-wide SINC database, which GiGL digitised from the original handbooks, which GiGL’s predecessor digitised for the first time in GIS in 2001.
GiGL holds a complete set of the handbooks and has obtained permission from the GLA to digitise and share them as an online resource. This followed our work on London’s Ancient Woodland Inventory Update Project, where we discovered that our volunteers enjoyed exploring not only the natural history within these resources, but also their historical stories and connections to London’s past. One volunteer, Stephen, even wrote a GiGLer article, Stories from the London Ecology Handbooks, featuring highwaywomen, old London pastimes, and even cases of identity theft!
Please note that the designation information in the Handbooks is very out of date, please consult GiGL for the current designations and related information.
Explore the handbooks below…
London Borough’s A-Z
Nature Conservation in Barking and Dagenham
Nature Conservation in Brent (1st ed.)
Nature Conservation in Brent (2nd ed.)
Nature Conservation in Croydon
Nature Conservation in Greenwich
Nature Conservation in Hammersmith & Fulham
Nature Conservation in Hillingdon
Nature Conservation in Hounslow
Nature Conservation in Islington
Nature Conservation in Kingston upon Thames
Nature Conservation in Lambeth
Nature Conservation in Lewisham
Nature Conservation in Richmond upon Thames
Nature Conservation in Southwark
Nature Conservation in Tower Hamlets
Nature Conservation in Waltham Forest
Note that the boroughs of Bexley, Bromley, City of London, City of Westminster, Hackney, Haringey, Havering, Kensignton & Chelsea, Enfield, Redbridge and Wandsworth did not have handbooks created by the LEU.