Bethnal Green Nature Reserve

Bethnal Green Nature Reserve calls itself "a cultural institute focused on ecological research and community learning in the heart of East London". It occupies the site of St Jude's Church, built in 1842 and destroyed by bombing in the Second World War; nature took the ruins back from 1977 onwards, and local residents and tenants' associations have stewarded the land since, naming it after the patron saint of lost causes.

The site holds the Phytology medicinal garden, an ecology garden, an artists' and researchers' residency, and a programme of volunteer days, talks and forest school sessions — plus outdoor film screenings among the trees.