Camley Street Natural Park

Camley Street canal and city view 2021

Credit Karolina Leszczynska-Gogol

Camley Street Natural Park is a unique urban nature reserve, surrounded by significant new development in a bustling part of central London - between King's Cross and St Pancras, open daily.

Location

12 Camley Street
King's Cross
N1C 4PW
A static map of Camley Street Natural Park

Know before you go

Access

The area around the new visitor centre and main path down to the pond dipping platform has accessible surfaces, whilst other footpaths around the site are surfaced in woodchip. The visitor centre is fully accessible, including an accessible toilet. There are steep steps with handrails at the southern end of the site lead to the viewpoint on the canal.

No visitor parking is available, but drop-offs can be made by arrangement. Camley Street has double yellow lines on both sides.

Dogs

Assistance dogs only
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Facilities

Visitor centre
Toilets
Cafe/refreshments
Accessible toilet
Baby changing facilities

When to visit

Opening times

October - March: 10am – 4pm
April - September: 10am - 5pm

Best time to visit

April to September

About the reserve

The site was once a coal drop for the railways into nearby King’s Cross Railway Station, which was demolished in the 1960s. It had been colonised by nature so the Trust ran a campaign to save the site from development and instead create a nature reserve; Camley Street Natural Park opening in 1985.  

The woodland, grassland and wetland habitats including ponds, reedbed and marshy areas, provide a rich habitat for birds, butterflies, amphibians and plant life, while our Visitor and Learning Centre caters for the thousands who visit annually.

Multi-functional floating reedbeds have been placed in the water’s edge along this area of the Regent’s Canal. They incorporate habitats for birds to nest in, invertebrates to live in, fish to spawn and shelter from predators in. The reedbeds also provide a range of ecosystem functions, including the absorption of excess nutrients from the water, mitigating canal pollution.

Status of Camley Street Natural Park

Site of Metropolitan Importance for Nature Conservation; Current holder of The Green Flag Community Award; Local Nature Reserve

Contact us

Karolina Leszczynska-Gogol
Contact number: 02038976150
Heritage Fund Logo 2021

National Lottery Heritage Fund

London Wildlife Trust could not reopen Camley Street Natural Park without the generous support of a wide range of trusts and foundations, lottery distributors, landfill funders and other grant-making bodies.

We are immensely grateful to our supporters (listed below), whether large or small, who help continue to make this reserve a reality.

Our supporters

  • Barnet and Sylvia Shine Foundation
  • Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF)
  • London Borough of Camden
  • Garfield Weston Foundation
  • Greater London Authority
  • Grange Farm Centre Trust
  • Hedley Foundation
  • Taurus Foundation
  • Hobson Charity
  • Thames Water
  • Charles Hayward Foundation
  • Veolia Environmental Trust
  • Mayor of London
  • The Steel Charitable Trust
  • Prism the Gift Fund