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The Middlesex Filter Beds are important for their industrial heritage as well as for nature conservation. The 6 filter beds were constructed by East London Waterworks Co. in 1852/3 in order to provide safe water to the surrounding area. By 1969 more up-to-date facilities were needed and the filter beds here ceased to be used, becoming overgrown but a haven for wildlife. In 1988 Thames Water, which now owned the site, leased it to Lee Valley Regional Park Authority and it was opened as Middlesex Filter Beds Nature Reserve. Two sculptures were specially commissioned, Kate Malone's 'Rise and Shine Magic Fish' and Paula Haughney's 'Nature's Throne'.

Lee Valley Park is a 10,000 acre, 26 miles long linear park, much of it green spaces, running through the northeast of London, Essex and Hertfordshire from the River Thames to Ware, through areas such as Hackney, Tottenham, Enfield, Stratford, Tower Hamlets, Walthamstow, Cheshunt, Broxbourne and Hoddesdon in an area generally known as the Lee Valley. London's largest park, Lee Valley Park is more than four times the size of Richmond Park, extending beyond London's borders into the neighbouring counties of Hertfordshire and Essex.
The park follows the course of the River Lea (Lee) along the Lea Valley from Ware in Hertfordshire through Essex and North East London, through the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park to East India Dock Basin on the River Thames. The park is managed by Lee Valley Regional Park Authority and is made up of a diverse mix of countryside areas, urban green spaces, heritage sites, country parks, nature reserves and lakes and riverside trails, as well as leading sports centres.