Nature & Art in the Neighbourhood - Epping Forest Guided Walk

Join us on this exciting and varied route, an urban wildlife-supporting theme with significant trees highlighted along the way. Visiting churchyards, residential and community-led street gardens plus artist’s studio visit and Epping Forest walk. Discover how re-naturing is growing momentum in Walthamstow.

Meet artist Sharon Drew, inspired by this ethos and showing paintings and landscape/forest studies in sketchbooks. Explore the secluded grasslands of Epping Forest borders with veteran Oaks and Hornbeam pollards.

Accessible by public transport (recommended) meeting at Walthamstow Central Station and leaving by Wood Street Overground (Chingford to Liverpool Street - Weaver Line). Free Parking also available in Upper Walthamstow Road near studio.

• Bring lunch, snack and water. There are two cafes on route for tea/coffee/snacks.
• Weather appropriate clothing
• Weather proof and study footware as some parts can be muddy and slippery
• Sunscreen/Hat

• This walk will not finish at the starting point. We will finish near Wood Street Overground Station (Weaver Line) 230 & W16 Buses
• Estimated length of the walk is about 3-4hours depending on the length of each stopping place
• You can join part of the walk if you prefer. Please be noted that times shown below in the Agenda are estimated.

You will have the opportunity to meet local artist Sharon Drew in her studio

Sharon Drew is a London-based artist whose abstract paintings are a response to the natural world, exploring a range of aesthetic qualities observed in nature such as rhythm and movement, texture and tone, colour and shifting light. Sources, as seen in sketchbook studies, are sometimes nearby such as Epping Forest or her own wildlife garden and other occasions further afield when on trips to Devon and coasts of Cornwall and Kent.

Drew seeks visual metaphors for the sensation of immersion in the landscape rather than depicting a particular place. The work ranges in scale and employs a variety of approaches from diluted sweeping gestural brush strokes to roughly painted rectangular forms. When painting the aim is to be ‘in the moment’ treading the fine line between risk and control.

Drew’s paintings have been embraced by the world of fashion and interiors, used in shoots for Vogue, Stella McCartney, Paul Smith, Gucci Flora. Purchases include Locke am Platz Hotel, Zurich, Varley NYC, Boston & Dallas, Jigsaw St Pancras International. Published in magazines - Wallpaper, The World of Interiors and Elle Decoration. The New Statesman highlighted Drew's work in 2024 Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, London. Drew completed Fine Art MA at UAL Central Saint Martins in 2003 where she is now Mentor to Fine Art MA and BA students. Her work is in private collections in London, New York, Dallas, Boston, Los Angeles, Toronto, Zurich, Bellagio and Grenoble.

Instagram: @drew_sharon

Website: www.sharondrew.com

Join our Guided Walks to discover more of Epping Forest and its ecology, heritage and cultural. Walks are led by our expert volunteer leaders. Some are a gentle stroll, whilst others are taken at a faster pace. Each walk tends to focus on a small part of the Forest, and sometimes with specific themes ranging from local histry to natural environment.

This walk is part of 'Epping Forest Together' project, made possible thanks to National Lottery Community Fund. To find out more about Epping Forest Together and other ways you can get involved, please visit EFHT's website here.

This event is part of the annual Urban Tree Festival, a UK wide celebration of trees and nature in our cities, towns, suburbs and urban landscapes. The festival takes place from the 9th - 17th May 2026. You can find out more by visiting: www.urbantreefestival.org

Info: Meet at Walthamstow Central Overground Station - on the ramp at Selbourne Road Entrance
(Weaver Line) and Underground (Victoria Line) and adjacent Bus Station. Visit Lime Tree walk -
remnant from earlier Selborne Park.

Info: Tim Hewitt Head Gardener will give 20-30 min tour around the 2 acre site to explain the radical work of volunteers to support wildlife by increasing biodiversity with a mosaic of native and non-native planting. Also the role of standing deadwood and rot as drivers of diversity along with a range of habitat construction. The site includes Veteran Crack Willow and mature Oak, Lime, Ash, Elder Hawthorn, Sycamore, and Horse-chestnut trees. Cafe & toilets

Info: A community-led street wildlife garden includes a range of
planting for pollinators and bee posts and insect homes.

Info: Artist’s Studio: Sharon Drew introduction to her contemporary abstract paintings and landscape/Epping Forest studies in sketchbooks situated in a wildlife-friendly garden. Works for sale.

Info: Visit St Peter’s in-the-Forest, planting to support pollinators in churchyard. Cafe &
toilets. 20 Bus

Info: 30-45 min circular walk around Gilbert’s Slade Epping Forest. A surprising open area of grassland
and woodland where Epping Forest meets Waltham Forest.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Walthamstow Central Station - on the ramp at Selbourne Road Entrance, Selborne Road, London, United Kingdom

Concerts, fests, parties, meetups - all the happenings, one place.

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