Made up of three separate elements, this site offers a range of habitats that compliment each other nicely. The Horniman Gardens (the gardens of the Horniman Museum) are a mixture of formal, planted and natural landscapes. They include native and non-native plants and mature trees in a large area. The Railway Trail and Horniman Triangle are much wilder areas. The Horniman Triangle lies to the south of the gardens and is owned and managed by Lewisham Council.The Horniman Museum is a centre of excellence for education concerning the environment. Horniman Gardens are Grade II listed. The Gardens won a Green Flag Award again for 20089. Lewisham Health Walks project uses this site – a Walking the Way to Health (WHI) scheme; see link for details.
Local Wildlife Site
Accessible Sites of Importance for Nature Conservation
Horniman Gardens, Horniman Railway Trail and Horniman Triangle
Borough: Lewisham
Grade: Borough Grade II
Access: Free public access (all/most of site)
Area: 9.49 ha
Description
Wildlife
The Gardens have numerous mature trees and hedges, which in turn support good numbers of common birds and other wildlife. The flower beds and gardens have been planted with a range of culinary and medicinal herbs from around the world.The Horniman Railway Trail (which follows the route of a defunct railway) presents the best wildlife habitat on the site. It is chiefly secondary woodland of ash, sycamore and silver birch. Ivy, bramble and cow parsley dominate the ground flora.A pond has been created at the northern end of the trail, where there is reed sweet-grass, yellow iris, water mint and great reedmace. Enclosing it is a meadow with plants sown from a wildflower seed mix, including salad burnet, field scabious, wild carrot and black knapweed.The Horniman Triangle features several locally rare plants, including broad-leaved helleborine, wood melick and wild strawberry.Facilities
Information; animalbird enclosure; disabled facilities; nature trail; open air performance; toilets (including disabled facilities and baby changing in the museum); playground; refreshments; sculptures/ monuments; waymarked walking route.
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