Ravenscourt Online

Welcome to Ravenscourt. This is a guide to the Ravenscourt area.

This is another wildfowl reserve run by Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust. This one was created out of the redundant water storage lagoons and is a magnet for birds and the occasional fox.Metal birds pass over at 90 second intervals but the live birds seem not to be bothered. The buildings house the offices viewing rooms and the restaurant
©Jack Hill
View from a tall "hide". It was a mild winter, & few migrating birds were in residence.
©Ian Day
©Ian Day
This new reserve was built on the site of the Barn Elms holding reservoirs, made obsolete by the building of the London Ring Main. The site of the treatment work was sold by Thames Water to Berkeley Homes. Some proceeds from this, together with money from Wildfowl and Wetland Trust went into creating the current reserve from the reservoirs on the 42 hectare site. Very little material was allowed on and off site (to minimise local heavy lorry traffic) so the concrete linings were crushed and used as the island tops.
©Hugh Venables
This lagoon provides storage and slight elevation to allow water to flow through the reserve. It is currently very full due to preparation for a planned closure of the inflow pipe to deal with Zebra Mussels, a non-native species from south-east Russia that is causing problems, though also providing a significant food source for Tufted Ducks. The reserve was very carefully designed and during construction specialised golf course contractors had to be used as they were the only ones to guarantee to be able to landscape the design accurately enough (the grazing marsh had to be exactly level, with 10-20cm undulations in places) it was modelled on the grazing marsh at Slimbridge, another Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust reserve.
©Hugh Venables
Originally the Castelnau Estate Church, One of the "Twenty Five New Churches" of South London between WW1 and WW2 (bibliography: ISBN 0 85244 313 7) and now a local-authority run community centre on Stillingfleet Road
©Stephen Craven
The lake is a sort of annexe to the London Wetland Centre.
©Roger Miller
Looking towards Hammersmith Bridge, the ornate streetlights along this section of Castlenau, Barnes, SW13.
©Phillip Perry
A WWT site in the capital. A haven for birds & aquatic animals.
©Nigel Chadwick
©Nigel Chadwick
A pair of Black Swans at the Wetland Wildlife Trust, Barnes.
©Phillip Perry
A little corner of the Wetland Wildlife Trust, Barnes, London, SW13.
©Phillip Perry
Dist:1.0km north<br/>Seen from the north bank.
©Rosalind Mitchell
Dist:1.0km west<br/>The River Thames flooding Chiswick Mall - a regular occurrence at high water springs.
©Jon Rogers
Dist:1.0km west<br/>Amusingly, today the country residence of the artist Hogarth is now right on the M4 into London! This view was taken from the north west side of the house.
©Pam Brophy

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Ravenscourt • Castlenau • Hammersmith • Bedford Park • Brook Green • Chiswick • Stamford Brook • Acton Green • Barnes • Barons Court • Mill Hill • Shepherd's Bush • Turnham Green • West Kensington • East Acton • Grove Park • Holland Park • Olympia • White City • Acton • Fulham • Notting Hill • Earls Court • Gunnersbury • Kensington • North Kensington • Old Oak Common • Putney • South Acton • St. Charles •