London Parks & Gardens welcomes you to discover the history of London’s parks and gardens through our Inventory. You can also learn about the people that have shaped London’s parks and gardens and ongoing management challenges through our regular series of talks and our publications.
There are lots of opportunities to get involved as a volunteer, such as researching and recording; or helping to campaign to protect London’s precious landscapes.
If you would be interested in working with us, we are currently recruiting for an Administrative and Communications Assistant at Duck Island Cottage.
Below is July’s Photo of the Month of Inner Temple, taken during this year’s London Square Open Gardens Weekend by Hannah Patterson. If you would like to enter an image for our website, add #lgtgardenparty to your photos of London’s green spaces on Instagram and we may feature you on our home page.
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Members, volunteers and supporters are all vital to the future of the charity. Learn more about how you can get involved and be part of the wonderful work of the charity.
What’s On
We are thrilled to announce the forthcoming lectures for the new Winter Lecture Series, including three live lectures as well as the usual online programme.
Campaigns
We champion the protection of historic green spaces for the benefit of everyone. We receive weekly lists of projects that may impinge on historic green spaces that our volunteers review and respond, where possible. Our current campaign is to protect Victoria Tower Gardens.
Save Victoria Tower Gardens
On Thursday 20th July, it was announced that the Court of Appeal had refused government permission to appeal against the quashing of planning permission of a new Holocaust memorial at Victoria Tower Gardens. Our comment is below.
A background note on the history of this case is here. This note, prepared with Save Victoria Tower Gardens, outlines our case as put to the High Court by Richard Drabble QC and prepared by Trust solicitor Richard Buxton.
Campaigners share ‘widespread dismay’ at Government failure to pursue a legal path for a fitting Holocaust education centre
The Court of Appeal has today, 21 July, refused ministers permission to try to overturn The High Court’s ruling that building the Holocaust Memorial and Learning Centre (HMLC) in a park protected in perpetuity for public enjoyment would be unlawful.
The legal dispute arises from the London Historic Parks and Gardens Trust’s campaign to protect all London parks from development, while supporting a Holocaust Memorial and a learning centre in a fitting venue.
The case centred on the 2019 decision of former Housing Minister Chris Pincher MP (suspended Con) to grant planning permission to build the centre in Victoria Tower Gardens next to Parliament, despite objections from some members of the Jewish community, Holocaust survivors, the local authority, campaigners, cross party Peers, a former Archbishop of Canterbury and a historic obligation in law to preserve this park for public enjoyment.
In a case brought by the London Historic Parks and Gardens Trust (the Trust), the High Court over turned Mr Pincher’s permission on the grounds of this legal protection in April. Since then, concerns about the scheme, including the lack of work to find a suitable alternative site, have been raised by the National Audit Office spending watchdog.
The Trust and campaigners including the Thorney Island Society and ‘Save Victoria Tower Gardens’ support a fitting Holocaust Memorial, education and a Learning centre. But they have described the current plan in a small, protected park as ‘the right idea in the wrong place’, especially considering the scope for other sites to do a fitting education centre justice.
A spokesperson for the Trust said:
“We share widespread dismay that in deciding to build on a protected park, the government pursued this noble cause via an illegal path. Had a more suitable site been chosen, a Holocaust education centre would already be doing its essential work. City parks are not a blank canvass waiting for development but greenspaces protected for public enjoyment so we sincerely hope that revised plans for a memorial near to Parliament can co-exist with a substantial education centre in a more suitable setting.”
Media contact: Helen Monger (Director) via Nathan Oley (Trustee) 07740 346 636.
More on Victoria Tower Gardens
