Nav i gat o r LONDON

secret spots Discover London’s little-known outdoor spaces, from wildlife walks to water sports. By Rachel Howard Be bowled over on the Square Mile’s green centre. Go sailing, kayaking and canoeing Gone are the days when City bankers wore among swans and seagulls on West Reservoir, bowler hats. These days, the only bowlers or just marvel at the hydraulic machinery. West around are members of the City of London Reservoir, Green Lanes, N4, http://homepages. Bowling Club, whose pitch sits right in Finsbury rya-online.net/nlsail Circus. On Tuesday evenings, watch the weekly Pay your respects at a pet cemetery tournament with cucumber sandwiches The Victorian upper crust buried their beloved and Pimm’s from the pavilion. And there are pets in special cemeteries. Hundreds of occasional jazz concerts in the bandstand miniature, mildewed gravestones in Hyde Park (check colf.org for details). Finsbury Circus stand testament to this tradition. More than 300 Gardens, EC2, cityoflondonbc.co.uk animals – dogs, cats, birds and even a monkey Walk with the animals – are commemorated in maudlin epitaphs. On the gritty Isle of Dogs, set amid 32 acres of Today, the place George Orwell called ‘perhaps parkland, Mudchute City Farm is the largest of the most horrible spectacle in Britain’ can only London’s 15 working farms. As well as going be viewed by appointment. Victoria Gate, Hyde horse riding, visitors can interact with more Park, W2, +44 (0)20 7298 2000 than 200 animals, including a family of llamas. Don’t feed the dinosaurs The café does fantastic English breakfasts and Walking around the lake in Crystal Palace Park, homemade lemonade. Pier Street, Isle of Dogs, lumpen dinosaurs loom out of the undergrowth. now out is Jonglez) Editions (£10.99, Nash Bill and RachelHoward by E14, mudchute.org These life-size concrete creatures were built in Join the mudlarks 1853 to educate the British underclasses about Clockwise from Deptford Creek is a lively wildlife habitat in a above Escape evolution. Their anticipation of Darwinism desolate industrial landscape. When the tide the crowds and outraged the religious establishment. Today, the ebbs, the riverbed becomes a solid trail of mud, explore the wildlife notion that these animals could have been embedded with the skeletons of old boats in Deptford Creek; domesticated around a duck pond seems far and docks. As you wade along, guides from the City of London more outrageous. Crystal Palace Park, SE19 the Creekside Centre point out local wildlife Bowling Club is a Guide Unusual An – London Secret Go all out at a cricket match – for free and history, ranging from tales of Russian tsars peaceful haven in Cricket has been played at London Fields since to the mating cycle of eels. 14 Creekside, SE8, the Square Mile; 1802, a tradition continued on weekend creeksidecentre.org.uk dinosaurs rule at Crystal Palace Park afternoons in summer. Plane trees provide shade Set sail on a disused reservoir in the unlikely event that it’s sunny and the Pub After several cholera outbreaks in the 19th on the Park offers refreshments for spectators. century, two reservoirs and a water-purification Afterwards, cool off in London Fields Lido, a plant were built in Stoke Newington. The 1930s gem revamped in 2006. London Fields former pump station is now a water-sports Westside, E8, hackney.gov.uk/c-londonfields-lido.htm

the rankin live exhibition at the old truman brewery uses 1,000 real brits as models Photography by Stephanie Rivoal, Jorge Monedero. Monedero. Jorge Rivoal, Stephanie by Photography 22 high life bahighlife.com