A Guide to London's Natural Escapes 🌿

London earned the name Forest City honestly: the Thames River forks in the middle of town, and the city grew up around the valleys rather than filling them in. The result is a nearly continuous green corridor — some 40 kilometres of paved path along the water, linking big riverside parks at one end to a lake and a conservation area at the other, with a genuine glacial bog tucked improbably into a residential neighbourhood along the way.

🌳 Springbank Park – London's Great Riverside Park

At around 140 hectares, Springbank is the largest park in London and the one locals mean when they say they are going for a walk. It runs along the south branch of the Thames with mature trees, gardens, wide lawns and about four kilometres of path, and Storybook Gardens sits inside it. The riverbank here draws herons, ducks and the occasional mink, and the whole park connects directly into the city's longer trail network rather than dead-ending.

• 140 Hectares
• Thames Riverside
• Storybook Gardens
• Connects to TVP

Source: City of London

🚴 Thames Valley Parkway – 40 km Through the Middle of the City

The Thames Valley Parkway is a paved multi-use path running some 40 kilometres along the Thames, stitching together parks, woodlots and neighbourhoods from the west end through downtown and out to Fanshawe. It is the reason London calls itself the Forest City with a straight face: you can cross most of the city under tree cover, beside water, without touching a road. Walkers, cyclists and runners share it year-round.

• 40 km Paved Path
• Follows the Thames
• Links City Parks
• Year-Round

Source: City of London

🌿 Sifton Bog – A Northern Bog Inside the City

Sifton Bog is a kettle bog left behind by retreating glaciers, and it is a genuine oddity: a floating mat of sphagnum moss with tamarack, black spruce, leatherleaf and insect-eating pitcher plants, sitting inside a southwestern Ontario city. A boardwalk carries you out to Redmond's Pond at the centre without damaging the mat. It is designated an Environmentally Significant Area and holds plant communities that otherwise belong several hundred kilometres north.

• Glacial Kettle Bog
• Floating Sphagnum Mat
• Pitcher Plants
• Boardwalk Access

Source: City of London

🏞️ Fanshawe Conservation Area – Lake, Forest and Long Trails

North-east of the city, Fanshawe Lake sits behind a flood-control dam on the Thames, ringed by a conservation area of woodland, meadow and shoreline. The Fanshawe Lake Trail loops right around the water — a long, varied walk or ride of roughly 20 kilometres — and the area also carries campgrounds, a beach and boat launches. It is the closest thing to a full day out in the country without leaving London's edge.

• Lakeside Loop Trail
• ~20 km Circuit
• Camping & Beach
• Upper Thames Watershed

Source: Upper Thames River Conservation Authority