Where your money goes
In this, our 10th anniversary year, we’re focusing our fundraising on several key projects – from renovating and upgrading children’s playgrounds, to encouraging community rowing on the Serpentine and protecting London's hedgehog population.
Revitalising our children’s playgrounds
There are 14 playgrounds across the eight Royal Parks aiming to provide exciting and high quality play areas for all the family. A number are now in need of essential refurbishment and repair to bring them up to their five-star standard. Please help transform them into even more fun places for children to explore.
In particular, the existing South Carriage Drive playground in Hyde Park (close to the Half Marathon start line) is due for a complete redesign into a state of the art zone for children’s adventure. The Hyde Park team can see this playground’s potential and want to make it more visually inspiring – as well as imaginative and educational for children.
Row Hyde! A home for youth rowing on the Serpentine
The Royal Parks Foundation has teamed up with the charity London Youth Rowing to teach young people how to row and introduce them to the wildlife and ecology of the Serpentine in Hyde Park.
This programme is an exciting opportunity to renovate an historic Boat House on the north shores of the Serpentine and see it transformed into a centre for rowing, education and ecological programmes for inner city children which will have an impact to last for generations to come.
London’s hedgehog population is declining – help us to find out why!
In the 1970s the loveable hedgehog, a UK Biodiversity Action Plan species, used to be a common resident in London’s central Royal Parks. However, in recent times they have disappeared from all except The Regent’s Park.
The decline of hedgehogs in central London has been greater than that for the rest of the UK, and despite various studies, there is still not enough information about the true scale and causes of this trend.
We’re raising money to support a radio tracking survey of the hedgehogs in Regent’s Park to provide further information on population numbers, nesting and foraging behaviour and habitat management recommendations to encourage this
population to thrive again.
Access for all at the stunning Isabella Plantation in Richmond Park
The Isabella Plantation is a stunning ornamental woodland garden in Richmond Park. This hidden gem contains fantastic plant life, including 15 known varieties of azaleas and 50 species of rhododendron. It is also home to a host of wildfowl.
The Parks have been granted nearly £1.5million from the Heritage Lottery Fund and the Big Lottery Fund to carry out a raft of improvements to the Gardens and the Foundation has also committed to help raise funds to make this beautiful oasis
more accessible for all. Works will include:
- improved paths and lawns
- on site eco toilets
- information point so that many more visitors can enjoy the dazzling gardens and wildlife for years to come.