This weekend, I was delighted to welcome around 200 Muslim Hikers to Epping Forest, many of whom live in the area, but have never taken the opportunity to visit “the Green Lungs of London” before.
Muslim Hikers was set up by Haroon Mota during the Covid-19 pandemic to help facilitate with walks all over the UK, from Snowden to the Lake District, from the South Downs to the Gower Peninsula. The group’s aim is to get a greater diversity of people connecting with green spaces and nature across the country – an ambition I certainly share!
This was the Muslim Hikers’ second visit, co-ordinated by local charity Epping Forest Heritage Trust. The Heritage Trust see part of their work to encourage more people from the Muslim community in East London to visit the Forest.
The City Bridge Foundation (of which the City of London Corporation is the Trustee) have issued the Epping Forest Heritage Trust several grants to support this work. In March 2023 they were awarded £67,500 over two years towards 0.4 FTE Conservation Officer to enable a more diverse community of volunteers to support Epping Forest, as well as associated project and management costs. In February 2024, they were awarded £14,700 for a 1-year bespoke community engagement to increase and involve the diversity of people attending Epping Forest. This funding is also supporting projects with Black Girls Hike and supporting some women’s conservation volunteering sessions.
We were also lucky to hear from Malik Tailor of the Muslim History Tours group. Malik talked about the fact the Royal Forest Hotel in Chingford (owned by the City of London Corporation) was recently discovered to have hosted London’s first known Eid prayers. Surprisingly the Eid prayers took place bi-annually 1894-1897 and the site is now marked by a blue plaque on its wall to showcase Epping Forest’s long history of being open and accessible to people of all faiths and none, of all backgrounds and of all abilities.
You can read more about the City of London Corporation’s Natural Environment Access and Recreation Strategy here.
My thanks to all of the teams at Muslim Hikers, Epping Forest Heritage Trust and our teams of Forest Keepers for their help in making this another successful visit.
