Park BenchNews from around the London ParksRoyal Parks Foundation Launched Royal Parks Foundation LaunchedA new Royal Parks Foundation (RPF) has been established to work alongside the Royal Parks Agency to support its work and raise funds from the private sector.
Vista in St James's Park, one of the Royal Parks looking forward to benefiting from the new Royal Parks Foundation Among the flagship projects targeted for support are the £7m+ restoration of the Baroque early eighteenth century water gardens in Bushy Park. Important new evidence has recently come to light in the Hermitage Museum in Russia, showing illustrations of the layout and buildings on the Bushy Park and adjacent Hampton Court palace sites. The Foundation, which was granted charitable status in June 2003, was the idea of William Weston, Chief Executive of the Royal Parks Agency. The Prince of Wales held a reception for the RPA at St James Palace to launch the idea and bring together potential interested parties. The first three trustees are Apurv Bagri, a leading British-Asian businessman, Peter Ellwood, former chief executive of Lloyds TSB and Andrew Fenwick of the Brunswick Group. All three are reported to be very enthusiastic about London's parks. In addition to the funds which will be generated by the Foundation, the Royal Parks Agency is also seeking project development funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund. William Weston was guest of honour at this year's LPGT summer garden party Kew Wins World Heritage StatusTHE Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, have been awarded World Heritage Site status. The award was conferred by UNESCO in early July. With this award, Kew Gardens joins an elite list of sites of outstanding universal value across the world from the Taj Mahal to the Tower of London. The Gardens, on their 132 acre Thames-side site, are over 250 years old and include more than 40 listed buildings and other structures including the Palm House, Orangery and the Pagoda. In 2002 there were over one million visitors. Kew is also recognised around the world as a centre for excellence for the study of plant diversity. The concept of World Heritage Sites is at the core of the World Heritage convention, adopted by UNESCO in 1972. The list recognises those sites regarded as important enough to be the responsibility of the international community as a whole. As members of the Convention, nation states pledge to care for their World Heritage sites as part of protecting their national heritage. Three SE London Parks Win £7.3mTHREE historic nineteenth-century public parks in southeast London have won Heritage Lottery Fund Grants worth a total of £7,350,000. The three are Dulwich Park and Peckham Rye Park in the LB of Southwark and Telegraph Hill Park, Brockley, in the LB of Lewisham. Details of the awards are as follows:
Earlier this year the Thames Landscape Strategy was awarded a £2.2m HLF grant for its "Arcadia in the City" project to restore the historic vistas from Richmond Hill along the river Thames. Matching funding is being sought. The HLF recently published Park Life, a booklet that charts HLF's investment of £320 million in hundreds of parks throughout the UK. For more information visit their web site at www.hlf.org.uk or telephone 020 7591 6042.Acton's 100 Years of Ranger ServiceLOCAL history came to life on 17th May when LB Ealing's Parks & Countryside service celebrated the 100th birthday of Acton Park Lodge, home to the borough's park ranger team. Local children showed off their handicrafts while other visitors enjoyed the brass band and watched a chainsaw carving demonstration. Acton Lodge was built in 1903 and was renovated five years ago. Earlier this year, the last elm tree in Ealing finally succumbed to Dutch elm disease. Sculptor Dennis Heath has used the wood from the 120 year old tree to carve a unique memorial - a totem poll in the form of a 28-foot squirrel, which now stands on the former site of the tree. Pay to Walk In Hampton Court Gardens?VISITORS to the gardens at Hampton Court Palace may soon have to pay. The Historic Royal Palaces Agency has launched a consultation into possible ways to boost income for the gardens which cost £2m a year to run. Hampton Court currently attracts around 200,000 visitors a year who pay £11 to enter the palace and a separate fee for the maze. The Palace also runs other fund-raising activities. Entrance to the gardens is free, and they are well used by local people. Rod Giddins, the Director of Hampton Court, commented, 'Like any charity that receives no public subsidy, we are always looking at ways to raise the necessary funds to maintain and conserve the Palace and its gardens for everyone's enjoyment and that of future generations. " The proposal has been criticised by Twickenham MP Vincent Cable, who commented, "I find it impossible to believe that one of Britain's leading tourist attractions, with additional income from the flower show, festival and events on the green, can possibly be losing money. The experience of museums and art galleries is that soaking the public to pay for visiting the country's heritage can be seriously counter-productive and has had to be reversed in some cases." Spencer House Garden RestoredTHE authentically restored period garden at Spencer House, next to St James's Park, features plants and shrubs appropriate to the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Examples of the planting include Eryngium agavifolium, Hosta sieboldiana elegans and Rosa (Musk) 'William Lobb'. The garden is not normally open to the public and a special opening on 29 June 2003 attracted long queues. Spencer House, close to St James Park, is one of London's finest surviving eighteenth century mansions. It was built in 1756-66 for John, first Earl Spencer, an ancestor of Diana, Princess of Wales. Lavishly restored, Spencer House is open to the public on Sundays (excluding January and August). For more information visit www.spencerhouse.co.uk or telephone 020-7499 8620. Go Wild in Kew This Summer"GO Wild", Kew's summer festival for 2003, focuses on the splendour of Britain's varied native wildlife. Among the attractions are a 100m scaffolding walkway high up in the canopies of oak and redwood trees. The steel structure takes visitors up to 10m above the ground - an exhilarating way to explore the beauty of mature trees and learn about the lives of the many creatures which make their home there. For more information visit www.rbgkew.org.uk, where you can view a moving panorama of the views from the walkway, or phone 020-8339 5655. Makeover for Sloane SquareLEADING architect Lord Rogers is working with owners the Cadogan Estates and Council Planners in Kensington and Chelsea on a major face-lift for Sloane Square. The scheme is part of the "Making Space for Londoners" initiative, first featured in London Landscapes in Spring 2003. The square is currently an infamous traffic bottleneck in South West London and few of the visitors battling to cross the surrounding roads get to enjoy much of the square itself. Cadogan Estates would like to see the central area transformed into two large pedestrianised zones beside Sloane Square tube station and the Peter Jones department store. EH Lists Ladbroke Estate GardensTHE 16-acre Ladbroke Estate gardens have been added to English Heritage's Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest. This follows five years of campaigning by local resident and LPGT member Robina Rose. Sites are chosen for listing on the basis of their age, historic layout, rarity and features. Visit the English Heritage web site at www.english-heritage.org.uk for information. Isle of Dogs Garden Wins Wetlands AwardTHE Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust Award for 2002 has been won by Barratt Homes for a communal garden scheme around their development at Pierhead Lock, Isle of Dogs, East London. The judges commented, "Wise use of water is an issue everywhere, but in London and the south east it is absolutely critical. This scheme combines imaginative restoration of the riverbank to improve enjoyment and create new wildlife habitat with clever re-use of waste water from within the apartment block to irrigate a delightful garden". Lost Abbey Dug Up in Syon ParkCHANNEL Four Television's Time Team has helped unearth a huge lost abbey at Syon Park, Brentford. The team, carrying forward work being done by researchers from Birkbeck College and the Museum of London, have shown that the abbey rivalled in size King's College Chapel, Cambridge or Salisbury Cathedral and accommodated separate communities of monks and nuns. Syon House, the London home of the Dukes of Northumberland, is built on the site of the abbey which was dissolved by Henry VIII in 1539. The abbey took its name from Mount Zion in the Holy Land. The programme will go on air in the new year. Bedouin Pavilion for Kensington GardensTHIS year's summer pavilion for the Serpentine Gallery in Kensington Gardens is a Bedouin tent-style structure in concrete, steel and aluminium, designed by the 95 year old Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer. To reduce disturbance to the lawns on which it stands, the 25m wide pavilion is raised by 1.5m on four slender columns. Julia Peyton-Jones, curator of the Serpentine Gallery, who flew to Brazil to persuade Niemeyer to take the commission, commented, 'Each year the summer pavilion gives us an outside room where we can entertain visitors. Over a summer weekend we can have as many as 5,000 visitors". The pavilion will be dismantled in late September and sold to the highest bidder. Park People
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Friends' NewsHeritage Lottery Fund
- danger of waste News from the TrustPoised For an Expanded RôleThe London Inventory Over the next five years the London Parks & Gardens Trust will achieve greater recognition as an authoritative and professional body, contributing to and consulted by those concerned with the enhancement and conservation of London's green open spaces. The Trust's comprehensive database, educational activities, publications and involvement in planning for London will secure an increasing and broad-based membership, active in promoting its objectives. The London InventoryTHE first six months of 2003 have seen the Trust take great strides towards achieving this vision set out in its strategy document in March 2002. In particular, the launch of the London Inventory of Historic Green Spaces on April 10th was a special day! The London Inventory is the culmination of work that began in 1994 and has been generously funded by a number of bodies including English Heritage, Historic Royal Palaces, The Pilgrim Trust and Transport for London. Most recently the Trust has committed its own limited funds to completing this survey of over 2000 historic green open spaces throughout the London boroughs, masterminded by Sally Williams with great enthusiasm and efficiency. The Inventory's launch at the Trust's successful conference at the Guildhall highlighted the determination of Government, amenity societies and all those involved in the protection and enhancement of London's green spaces to work together to produce a comprehensive and publicly accessible knowledge base. The Trust is now producing a development plan to decide how best to disseminate this information, whilst generating an income to fund its update and expansion. Educational Discovery PackA second major event was confirmation that the Trust's application to the Heritage lottery Fund for finances to develop the London Parks Discovery Pack had been successful! Sarah Couch has worked tirelessly to prepare this application and has now brought together a steering group to manage the project, which aims to raise children's awareness of their local historic green spaces by providing a web-based resource for work linked to the National Curriculum. We will be appointing a project officer this autumn for this two year project. Sunny Garden Squares DayThe sun really has been shining on us this year as even London Garden Squares Day was almost rain-free! Ian Kennaway and his team must be congratulated for the biggest event yet with 98 squares participating. As well as being a fun-filled day for the squares and their visitors, we hope it will have provided much-needed finds for our activities. In anticipation of financial rewards from the day, Sally Williams has been appointed Keeper of the Inventory to work with London Boroughs to agree lists of locally significant historic green spaces for inclusion in Unitary Development Plans and to deal with all queries relating to individual Inventory sites. Staffing Future ProjectsExpansion of our activities signifies a new phase in the development of the Trust - a phase in which we need to appoint paid consultants and other personnel to fulfil our professional commitments. To this end we will be applying for funding for further major projects including the development of the Inventory and th promotion and management of London Garden Squares Day, both of which have the potential to generate long-term income for the Trust. However, the management and day-to-day running of the Trust remains with volunteers. In particular, we need additional members of the Planning and Conservation Group and a fund raiser to ordinate the systematic application to grant-giving Trusts and other potential sponsors of the Newsletter and Journal.
Your Trust needs you - now more than ever - as it continues to expand and increase its contribution to the promotion and protection of London's green spaces! Barbara Simms.
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