Greenwich Park to get £8 Million facelift funded by National Lottery

By Tallulah Taylor

A royal park is to be restored to the state it was in when it was the domain of Henry VIII – who was born there.

Work has begun to give Greenwich Park a four-year, £8 million facelift, supported by funding from the National Lottery.

The project will encourage biodiversity with new wildflower meadows and orchards, deliver training and volunteering opportunities for the local community, create new community facilities and restore the 1660s historic landscape.

The 590-year-old historic landscape has suffered under the increasing number of visitors, tree diseases and erosion.

The park stretches over 183-acre and hosts 4.8 million people every year, placing the park’s infrastructure, facilities and natural environment under strain.

The Royal Parks charity, which manages the park, has unveiled revised plans for a new learning centre and improved visitor facilities which will increase public access and inspire local people to discover Greenwich Park’s fascinating heritage and wildlife.

The revised plans include the building of a volunteer hub, a glass house for community growing, and public toilets, which will include a changing places facility for disabled visitors.

As well as facilities to house a mobility buggy which will help make the park more accessible.

The currently unused contractors’ yard, between Vanbrugh Gate and the flower garden, will be turned into a community café, a kitchen garden and a volunteer space.

Existing plans have already been given the go ahead to turn Vanbrugh Lodge into a community café with a kitchen garden with raised beds for volunteer groups to grow fruits and vegetables. An orchard will be built nearby with wildflower meadows.

And new plans will see the wildlife centre, which currently hosts educational workshops with schools, and is currently run down, turned into volunteer facilities with accessible toilets and the entrance to a new outdoor learning centre.

The new learning centre is being built from natural materials and designed by sustainable architects, Architype. It will have a green roof, natural play facilities and a wildlife pond to encourage outside learning.

Loyd Grossman CBE, Chairman of The Royal Parks Board, said: “Greenwich Park is London’s oldest enclosed Royal Park and this award will help restore and conserve the Grade 1 listed landscape as well as provide outstanding new visitor facilities.”

Graham Dear, Manager, Greenwich Park Revealed, said: “The community is right at the heart of this project, so we’re delighted to reveal these exciting new plans for schools and local groups. We would love to hear people’s views on what we are proposing and would encourage people to get in touch.

“Unfortunately, the pandemic has meant that we have had to revise our original designs, for learning and volunteering – although our plans to restore the landscape and delver community events and activities remain unchanged. By repurposing existing buildings and constructing a smaller, new classroom from sustainable materials, we aim to create better facilities for volunteers and learners with an emphasis on discovering the outdoors.

“These new facilities will reveal the wonder of the nature on our doorsteps, inspiring local people to cherish and protect Greenwich Park for future generations.”

Royal Parks are encouraging people to comment on the revised plan by emailing greenwichparkrevealed@royalparks.org.uk before March 14th^{, 2021}.

History of Greenwich park

Greenwich park established itself as the apex of South East London when King Henry V’s brother Humphrey, the Duke of Gloucester, inherited the land and enclosed it in 1427.

Its popularity continued into Tudor times when King Henry VII built Greenwich palace and his son king Henry VIII was born there. He introduced deer and held huge outdoor games.

Christopher Wren converted the ruined Greenwich castle into the Royal Observatory, with Flamsteed house becoming the first part of the Observatory to be built.

In 1676, the first Astronomer Royal John Flamsteed moved in to begin observations, making over 50,000 observations of the moon and stars during the time he lived there.

All the visible stars in the northern and southern hemispheres were plotted there by the first two Astronomers Royal; John Flamsteed and Edmond Halley.

The Royal Observatory was also instrumental in developing accurate clocks, and the first public time signal in the country was broadcast there in 1833.

Greenwich meantime remains the standard line of zero longitude for mapping and timekeeping.

Not only is the park home to historic buildings and history but to 350-year-old chestnut trees planted by Charles II.

The Old Royal Naval College is famously used in countless film and TV sets including, Les Miserable, The Crown and Skyfall.

The Greenwich Fair 

Dickens immortalised the infamous 19^th century Greenwich fairs, which attracted hundreds of thousands of people until it was shut down in 1857.

Every Easter and Whitsun thousands of revellers would come by all means, even by boat along the Thames, for escapism in Greenwich and Blackheath.

A popular feature of the fair for couples was the scandalous “tumbling” down The Giant Steps, holding hands, usually ending up in a heap at the bottom.

Charles Dickens described it as ‘a sort of spring-rash; a three days fever which cools the blood for six months afterwards, and at the expiration of which London is restored to its old habits of plodding industry’.