Wilderness Island

Owned by Sutton Borough Council and managed by the London Wildlife Trust, Wilderness Island is set between two arms of the River Wandle. It is designated as a Local Nature Reserve and also a Site of Metropolitan Importance for Nature Conservation.

Its watercourses powered mills in the 17th century. It was later a pleasure garden with a surviving fishpond from that era.

Now it is a varied natural resource with habitats ranging from ponds and wetlands to woods and wildflower meadows.

The LWT’s list of possible species would tempt any nature lover: woodpeckers,  kingfisher and grebes; black poplar; hornet clearwing moth, speckled wood butterfly, holly blue butterfly and comma butterfly; water-plantain, yellow flag, great reedmace and water crowfoot; Roesel’s bush cricket.