Sir David Attenborough opens Woodberry Wetlands nature reserve

David Mooney of the London Wildflife Trust (left) shares a joke with Sir David Attenborough (right). Photograph: Victoria Seabrook

Sir David Attenborough was the guest of honour at the opening of a new nature reserve next to the redeveloped Woodberry Down council estate.

The land immediately surrounding the Stoke Newington East Reservoir, now rechristened Woodberry Wetlands, had been sealed off from the public for nearly two centuries but had long been considered prime real estate by birds like herons and grebes, along with other creatures such as bats and great crested newts.

Now, thanks to a £1.5 million project by the London Wildlife Trust, a new café and visitors centre have opened, a boardwalk has been constructed and the place has been spruced up with jazzy interpretative information boards to teach people about the reservoir’s history and wildlife.

Volunteers from the Trust have also enhanced what habitat that was already there by creating new reed beds and ponds and putting up nest boxes, and it is hoped rare species such as the bittern – a migratory heron that lives in fens and marshland – will soon be putting in an appearance.

On the day of the opening, cettis warblers could be heard stridently singing as reed warblers muttered in the vegetation – perhaps a sign of the renaissance to come.

Natural haven: Woodberry Wetlands has been sealed off for almost 200 years. Photograph: Victoria Seabrook

Asked by the Hackney Citizen how the inner city oasis compared with some of the far flung natural havens he has visited, Sir David said that just because a place was densely populated did not mean wildlife could not flourish there – and he said contact with nature was people’s “birthright”.

“It’s not a luxury, you know,” he said. “If it isn’t there, it’s a great deprivation, and if it is, it’s what human beings deserve. We are part of the natural world.”

The broadcaster, who was speaking ahead of his ninetieth birthday, added: “No one in this country need feel they can’t have a connection with nature.”

The London Wildlife Trust, which runs a total of 42 reserves in the capital, has longstanding local links.

Established at a meeting in Stoke Newington in 1981, the charity has ambitions to help rejuvenate neighbouring brownfield sites such as the section of the New River that runs from the reservoirs to Finsbury Park.

In a further phase of a wider scheme taking in neglected East London green corridors, it is due to open another nature reserve at the Walthamstow reservoirs next year.

Sir David Attenborough. Photograph: Victoria Seabrook