A series of images showing the changes which will be made to Marble Hill Park as part of English Heritage’s Marble Hill Revived project have been released by the charity.
Last month the organisation submitted a revised planning application to the Richmond Council for the £6 million project, which is aiming to revive Marble Hill House and Park and improve the facilities.
The new images show the ‘before and after’ impact to the Pleasure Grounds and the Woodland Quarters at the back of Marble Hill House, where English Heritage will be restoring the structure of the lost 18th-century garden. This will involve opening up and replanting overgrown areas to create new spaces and habitats for wildlife, as well as reinstating woodland walks, an Orchard and a flower garden.
The images have also revealed that the treasured view of Marble Hill House from the River Thames will remain virtually unchanged.
Kate Pitt, English Heritage’s Audience Development Manager at Marble Hill, said: “We want to transform Marble Hill House and Park into one of the best and most beautiful parks in London.
"These new images will give people an idea of how we’ll go about that and what the park will look like when the project is completed. As the pictures show, the Pleasure Grounds and Woodland Quarters will be a beautiful and tranquil area where families and friends can come to relax and play at any time of year.”
Before submitting the revised planning application, English Heritage spent six months working with community organisations and listening to the views of local people after concerns were raised about some elements of the original proposals, notably improvements to the landscape, play area and cafe.
The Marble Hill Revived project is being backed by a number of local groups including the Marble Hill Society, Marble Hill Playcentres, Kew Park Rangers Football Club, the Environment Trust and the London Parks and Gardens Trust.
Denise Carr, Chair of the Marble Hill Society, said: “The Marble Hill Society feels that full support should be given to English Heritage for their plans for Marble Hill. We have been worried that the house would eventually end up being closed completely, which would be such an enormous loss to Twickenham and 18th-century history. So we are delighted that the Marble Hill Revived project brings significant capital investment to improve the house and park, completely re-presenting it in a modern way, for modern visitors.”
Katy Grieves from Marble Hill Playcentres added: “I’m really excited about the Marble Hill Revived project. I think it will really bring the park to life and offer more opportunities for local people to enjoy it. We’ve really appreciated how English Heritage has included Marble Hill Playcentres and other interest groups in the steering committee and worked with us to determine how we can make this project a real success for the local community. We at the playcentre really support the proposals and hope that everyone else does too.”
English Heritage has been awarded a grant of £4.08m from the Heritage Lottery Fund and Big Lottery Fund Through its Parks for People Programme for the Marble Hill Revived project.
Love Marble Hill has requested an independent review of English Heritage’s research. A year-long research project undertake by Love Marble Hill has found no evidence of a “lost pleasure garden” at the historic site.
The “restoration” is based on a long lost garden drawing found in archives in 1991 and £4.08m has been awarded by the Heritage Lottery Fund to implement it.
Love Marble Hill are holding a public meeting on October 16 at 7:00 pm at St Mary's Church in Twickenham.They will be presenting new evidence based on the inspection of 1000+ documents, land titles, court rolls, surveys and maps.
Janine Fotiadis from Love Marble Hill said: "There’s a danger that grade II* listed landscape we enjoy today will be replaced with an inauthentic “restoration” if the ‘Revived’ scheme goes ahead."
For more information about the Marble Hill Revived project, visit: www.english-heritage.org.uk/marblehillrevived.
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