Slade Green & Crayford Marshes

Slade Green and Crayford Marshes sit on the south bank of the River Thames in the London Borough of Bexley. The area is low-lying floodplain made up of saltmarsh, reedbed and grazing marsh cut by drainage ditches and tidal creeks, with mudflats exposed at low tide. The marshes provide feeding and roosting space for wintering wildfowl and waders and act as part of the river’s natural flood storage. The land meets an industrial edge inland where the Slade Green railway depot and freight lines form a clear boundary with housing beyond.

Local footpaths and permissive routes follow the sea wall and skirt the marshes, giving views across the estuary and the pattern of channels that mark past river management. Management is a mix of borough stewardship and informal local conservation work focused on maintaining open water, reed margins and the grazing regime that keeps the marshes functioning for birds and invertebrates. The site reads as a working riverside landscape rather than a formal park.