Victoria Tower Gardens is a Grade II listed historic park in a conservation zone, forming part of the Westminster World Heritage Site. Despite this and a law committing the UK Government to protect it for the public, it is under threat from development proposed by … HM Government.
Concerns for its future have reached a new level with the announcement on the 18th of March 2025 of the park being listed as one of Europe’s Seven Most Endangered heritage sites!
Its future integrity is threatened by a proposal to build a UK Holocaust Memorial and Learning Centre in the space. LPG has successfully challenged this project since 2016 on the grounds it ignores legal protection granted to the park, and the plans would forever change the nature of the space. Our views have been upheld through the planning process and in the courts, yet successive Governments are determined to impose this substantial development in this treasured small green space.
LPG fully supports the creation of a holocaust memorial and learning centre, but not in Victoria Tower Gardens. Alternative sites with more space and better access are available and were proposed when the original plans were submitted.
LPG nominated the Gardens for inclusion in Europe’s Most Threatened heritage sites run by the civil society group Europa Nostra and backed by the European Investment Bank Institute.
We believe the park is the wrong location because the designs by Sir David Adjaye and Ron Arad presented to Westminster City Council and subsequently considered at a planning inquiry will:
- contravene the park’s legal protection;
- irreparably change its heritage status and atmosphere for visitors;
- run counter to the London Plan for development and the Government’s own greening ambitions;
- consume a fifth of the surface area of the park’s amenity green space, and more than a third of its total area – see plans for before and after;
- cut the roots of historic London Plane Trees;
- diminish and maroon the playground, cutting it off from the body of the park and pushing it closer to a main road; and
- increase flood risk by reducing the ability for the park to act as a mitigation for climate change including sudden surface water absorption.
LPG took the Government to court and won, quashing the illegal planning approval. As a result, the Government is pushing a Bill through parliament to remove the legal protections which have safeguarded the park.
We publish correspondence and keep a Record of Events if you want to find out more; see the latest about the Bill being proposed for Parliament or see the Court Judgments on the successive cases we have taken to defend this historic park. We regularly update our Campaign donors through our Crowdjustice page.
How you can help?
Donate
We welcome donations to help us continue challenging this project and supporting our other work.
We thank all who have contributed to our campaign. Your funding has enabled our legal challenges with the generous support of Richard Buxton Environmental Solicitors and their team of barristers including Meyric Lewis, John Howell QC and Richard Drabble QC.
Throughout the campaign, we have worked with other campaign groups, including Save Victoria Tower Gardens and the Thorney Island Society, as well as individuals including Baroness Ruth Deech.
Take Action
The Charity has also sought on three occasions for the park and the Buxton Memorial to be declared Heritage At Risk by Historic England. So far that request has been dismissed as premature. We are waiting to hear if a fourth request will also be rejected. Please support our bid by writing to Historic England asking for the park to be declared Heritage At Risk: londonseast@HistoricEngland.org.uk
Write to your MP asking for them to stop the Holocaust Memorial Bill from passing through parliament in order to defend Victoria Tower Gardens, and lobby members of the House of Lords.
The Park
Victoria Tower Gardens, in central London, site alongside the Thames and provides the setting for the World Heritage Site around Westminster and the Houses of Parliament. It is a Grade II listed Park and contains numerous historically significant monuments including the Buxton Memorial, listed Grade II* in its own right. The Charity prepared a Statement of Significance about the site based on research from our Inventory entry to demonstrate the destructive nature of the Government’s proposals.
Investigating Victoria Tower Gardens: Historian and former House of Commons Clerk Dr Dorian Gerhold describes how a deep-dive into the history of Victoria Tower Gardens may have preserved it for the future.
