Chiswick House & Gardens Trust is celebrating after receiving a Green Flag Award for its historic Gardens.
The Green Flag Awards officially recognise the country’s best parks and green spaces, along with the hard work, passion and dedication of the teams who care for them, ensuring they are maintained to a high standard for visitors to enjoy.
The Grade I listed gardens at Chiswick House cover 65 acres of historic landscapes, considered the birthplace of the English Landscape movement, alongside features including the 17th-century walled Kitchen Garden and ‘the first English rose garden’. The gardens have been enjoyed as a public park since 1929 and are free to enter, every day of the year.
Run by Chiswick House & Gardens Trust on behalf of Hounslow Council, the gardens are carefully and sustainably managed by a small team of professional horticulturists alongside a host of dedicated volunteers and community partners from the local area.
Chiswick House & Gardens is one of a record breaking 2,391 sites across the UK to achieve the award this year, the 30th year of the international quality mark for parks and green spaces.
Paul Todd MBE, Green Flag Award Manager at Keep Britain Tidy, said: ‘Parks are essential public spaces that support our wellbeing, our communities and our economy. Yet for millions of people, particularly in the most deprived areas, local parks simply don’t feel safe or welcoming. With public services under pressure, investing in parks is not a luxury, it’s a practical, preventative solution and one of the most visible ways to improve people’s quality of life.
‘Chiswick House & Gardens Trust has shown what can be achieved when parks are properly supported and managed. As we celebrate 30 years of the Green Flag Award, we want every community to have access to green spaces like this that are safe, welcoming and maintained to a high standard. Congratulations to everyone involved.’
-more-
Rosie Fyles, Head of Gardens at Chiswick House & Gardens Trust, says: ‘We’re delighted to retain our Green Flag Award, recognising both the hard work that goes into maintaining this place – keeping it beautiful – and the importance it holds for our local community. Our Gardens are for everyone – we’re also celebrating the opening of three new spaces this summer which will welcome more schools and community groups to our Kitchen Garden than ever before and provide better facilities for our hard-working staff and volunteers.’
