Volunteers have repaired damage caused by years of thefts of water filtering equipment along the Lea River.

They have restored the historic Middlesex filter beds as a wetland habitat in a two-year project to return the nature reserve to its former glory.

The volunteers worked with a team from Lee Valley Regional Park Authority and conservation experts and civil engineers to reclaim this lost wetland next to Lea Bridge Road.

“These dynamic ecosystems are some of the most threatened habitats in the world,” Lee Valley Regional Park’s Paul Roper explained. “There was a real need to restore the wetland habitat, with global warming, pollution and urbanisation having an impact on the number of wetlands in Britain.

The restoration will increase biodiversity to this green corner of urban east London.”

The authority now wants to see amphibians such as frogs, toads and newts as well as dragonflies and birds return to the filter beds.

The restoration has been a long-term aim to have water running back into the filter beds, after repeated thefts of equipment that caused water flowing from the Lea to dry up six years ago.

The filter beds were built in the 1860s following the devastating cholera outbreak in east London that killed thousands.

London’s water supply was cleaned up — but the population expanded in the following decades and increased demand for clean water had to be met with a new treatment works at Walthamstow.

The old filter beds were abandoned in 1969, after 100 years, and became a wetlands for wildlife.

But efforts to keep them filled with water failed, with the spiralling costs due to the theft of equipment that kept water flowing, the authority revealed.

A solution was drawn up with Pick Everard civil engineers to develop secure pumping to keep water running to the filter beds. 

This followed a campaign for the restoration by Hackney councillor Chris Kennedy, who represents Hackney Wick near the Leabridge wetlands.

The project was completed this week after months clearing the scrubland by volunteers from Lee Valley Regional Park, Clapton Green Gym, Lea Bridge Conservation and Haggerston Gardeners, all working under the guidance of the authority’s park ranger and conservation teams.

This provided space for the native flora and fauna to thrive, with early signs of returning wildlife already being recorded along 26 miles of the Lea Valley.