Crossness Nature Reserve is a 25.5 hectare local nature reserve in

Crossness Crossness is a location in the London Borough of Bexley, close to the southern bank of the River Thames, to the east of Thamesmead, west of Belvedere and north-west of Erith. The place takes its name from Cross Ness, a specific promontory on the ...

in the

London Borough of Bexley The London Borough of Bexley () is a London boroughs, London borough in south-east London, forming part of Outer London. It has a population of 248,287. The main settlements are Sidcup, Erith, Bexleyheath, Belvedere, London, Belvedere, Crayford ...

. It is part of the

Erith Erith () is an area in south-east London, England, east of Charing Cross. Before the creation of Greater London in 1965, it was in the historical county of Kent. Since 1965 it has formed part of the London Borough of Bexley. It lies north ...

Marshes Site of Metropolitan Importance for Nature Conservation. The site is adjacent to

Crossness Sewage Treatment Works The Crossness Sewage Treatment Works is a sewage treatment plant located at Crossness in the London Borough of Bexley. It was opened in 1865 and is Europe's second largest sewage treatment works, after its counterpart Beckton Sewage Treatment Wor ...

; the works form the reserve's western boundary. It was created under a planning condition (Section 106 agreement) in 1994 and is owned and managed by

Thames Water Thames Water Utilities Limited, trading as Thames Water, is a British private utility company responsible for the water supply and waste water Wastewater (or waste water) is water generated after the use of freshwater, raw water, drinking w ...

. At the northern edge of the reserve is a waste management facility owned and operated by Cory. Crossness is part of the original Thames floodplain called

Marshes. It is one of the few remaining areas of grazing marsh in London, and it has the largest reedbeds in Bexley. It also has ponds and ditches, and areas of scrub and rough grassland. It is a major site for water voles, and 130 species of birds have been recorded, together with some rare invertebrates, including five species of water beetles and one of the UK's rarest wild

bumblebee A bumblebee (or bumble bee, bumble-bee, or humble-bee) is any of over 250 species in the genus ''Bombus'', part of Apidae, one of the bee families. This genus is the only Extant taxon, extant group in the tribe Bombini, though a few extinct r ...

species, the Shrill Carder bee. Scarce plants include Borrer's saltmarsh grass and frog rush, a species that was previously thought to be extinct in

Kent Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...

. There are footpaths through the eastern part of the site, accessed from Norman Road and Eastern Way, but the western part is closed to the public.

Developments

Between 2005 and 2011 the Belvedere Green Links project saw £1,000,000 spent on restoring

southern marsh and Crossness Nature Reserve, including the stable block. This was funded by the Homes & Communities Agency (HCA), the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and the Greater London Authority (GLA). Bexley Borough Council were key stakeholders. In the early 2020s, Cory announced plans to create one of Europe's largest Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) facilities in Belvedere, on a site including 11.7% of the 25.5 hectares of land at Crossness Nature Reserve. In December 2023, a campaign group (Save Crossness Nature Reserve) and petition was established to oppose the development. The petition generated 2,790 signatures. In June 2024, the campaign group sought to raise £8000 to fight the plans.https://southlondon.co.uk/news/fundraiser-to-challenge-plans-to-build-carbon-capture-plants-on-crossness-nature-reserve/

References

{{coord, 51.501, 0.148, type:landmark_region:GB, display=title Local nature reserves in Greater London Nature reserves in the London Borough of Bexley