Friends of Gunnersbury Park & Museum donate £14,000 to renovate the gardens

Gunnersbury Park – Photograph of the day

Image: Gunnersbury Park; Photograph Jennifer Griffiths

Restoring the Italians Gardens and creating new habitats for wildlife

Friends of Gunnersbury Park & Museum have donated just over £14,000 to fund renovations at the park.

The donation will help to renovate two key areas of the 72-acre Grade II* listed heritage park: the Italian Gardens – where the box hedges have been ravaged by the box tree moth and box blight – and the hedgerow project, which brings new habitats to the park.

They layout of the Italian Garden dates back to at least 1818, even before the estate was purchased by the Rothschild banking family to become their country estate. The gardens became a public park in 1926.

David G Bowler CEO Gunnersbury Trust said:

“We’re thrilled to receive this grant from our long-term supporters, the Friends of Gunnersbury Park… Without vital funds like these, we simply would not be able to maintain Gunnerbury’s Park & Museum for the community.”

Gunnersbury Park – Photograph of the day by Jennifer Griffiths @jengriffiths49

Image: Gunnersbury Park; Photograph Jennifer Griffiths

Protecting rare and protected species

The house in Gunnersbury Park was refurbished at a cost of £26 million and reopened to the public in the summer of 2018. The grounds include formal lawns and two lakes.

READ ALSO: Gunnersbury Museum reopens after major refurbishment

The hedgerow  project will provide habitats for the thrushes, finches, and sparrows which live in the park, as well as several rare and protected species, including common pipistrelle and soprano pipistrelle bats, hedgehogs and the endangered stag beetle.

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