Battersea Park

The restoration project

Photo of the Peace Pagoda in Battersea Park In 1998, we were awarded £7.5 million by the Heritage Lottery Fund towards the restoration of Battersea Park, to reinstate the 19th century landscape features and elements of the Festival of Britain gardens. We have contributed an additional £3.9 million towards the restoration, making it one of the biggest landscape restoration projects in the country.

Work commenced in 2000 and the park was opened by His Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh on 4 June 2004.

Ladies Pond bridge

Traditional joinery techniques and materials have been used to create an interpretation of the 19th Century rustic style original bridge in this location.

Boathouse

The previous boathouse was in poor repair and its concrete block construction was not in keeping with the historic lakeside landscape. A traditional style timber building has been constructed linked to the cafe by a timber boardwalk. Designed by architect Rod McAllister, this building has won three architectural awards, including the Royal Fine Art Commission Building of the Year in the category of Park Pavillion.

Bandstand toilets

Toilets have been constructed next to to the Fountain Pump House. Also designed by Rod McAllister, they are stylish and light with a glass brick construction.

Riverside

The original 19th century designs for a grand riverside promenade were found in the London Metropolitan Archive. These elegant plans depict an ornate river wall, a wide promenade walk and areas of ornamental planting with associated earth mounding.

This elegant design has been used as the basis of the restoration of this area, which was completed in November 2002. The kilometer long grand Promenade is once again framed by colourful planting arcs, ornate cast iron-benches and a variety of trees and shrubs.

Festival Pleasure Gardens

The Festival of Britain is now considered to be an important event in British post-war history. The main garden features, the Grand Vista and the Flower Garden designed by Russell Page, the great English landscape designer, have been restored, with the Vista Fountains forming the colourful focal point with over 50 jets of water. A tea kiosk will shortly be installed in this area.

Central avenue and the bandstand
The planting around the bandstand and central avenue form the link between the restored areas in the north of the park and the south. In the 19th century, these areas were densely planted and formed part of the formal axes between the serpentine areas and the sports fields. The tarmac area around the bandstand will be reduced and new surfacing laid the length of Central Avenue.

The Sub-Tropical Garden
This was the first sub-tropical garden to be opened to the public in Britain and had a national impact on design tastes. It was also the site of pioneering work on bedding husbandry and design. The garden has been restored to include the colourful bedding and exotic sub-tropical plants, surrounded by elegant benches.

The Rosary Garden
This garden formed the main entrance to the south of the park and provided contrast with the informal serpentine paths and planting that surrounded the lake.

Its formality and exuberance set the tone for the high standard of horticulture to be seen by the visitor in other areas of the park. Roses trained on arbours and standard roses are the main features of this classic 19th century design.

Southern boundary
The southern boundary includes the screening of the heavily trafficked Prince of Wales Drive with Victorian shrubberies. This has re-instated the original design intention to enhance the park visitors' impression of being in a rural setting with no visual intrusion from the outside world.

The planting has included a broad range of flowering shrubs and structure trees, including the Californian Red-Wood and Hollies, which have been grown for the past three years for this project.

Southern Lake
This area forms a crucial link between the Sub-Tropical Garden and the Rosary Garden. The previous lake edge was eroded and denuded of vegetation by grazing geese except for overgrown shrubbery of mixed quality. It included the refurbishment of the lake edges, planting of the lake-side shrub borders and marginal plants, improving access for fishermen, with new surfaces and lake edges, with protective goose fencing.

The work to the Southern Lake has continued the award winning work done during the restoration of the Northern Lake as part of the London Lakes Project in 1995.

These areas form the links between distinct areas, including the bandstand and the Sub-Tropical Garden, re-instating the screening and division between the pastoral sports areas and the ornamentally planted formal areas.