Heritage Lottery Funding For Chiswick House And Gardens
Helping to pay for projects including fundraising, and visitor accessibility
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Chiswick House & Gardens Trust (CHGT) has received £85,000 of National Lottery support through the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) under the Resilient Heritage grant programme.
Made possible by National Lottery players, Resilient Heritage grants help strengthen organisations, building the capacity of staff and volunteers to better manage heritage in the long term. The grant is funding the salary of CHGT’s first ever full-time fundraiser, an access audit that will review the physical accessibility of the House, and a full consultation into the visitor experience at Chiswick House & Gardens.
Projects funded by this grant are now well underway at CHGT: a fundraiser was appointed earlier this month and will be responsible for generating income through a variety of sources, working towards the Trust’s financial sustainability; the access audit has been completed and the results have been presented to the Trust; and, a consultant has been appointed to conduct a review of the visitor experience.
This is not the first grant Chiswick House & Gardens has received from the National Lottery. In 2006 the Trust was awarded £8.1m to assist in the restoration of the Grade I listed Gardens. Designed in the 18th century by William Kent, the Gardens are considered to be one of the birthplaces of the English Landscape Movement, which not only changed British design but were one of the UK’s greatest contributions to European art and architecture.
Clare O’Brien, Director of CHGT, says “The Trust is delighted that the National Lottery is enabling us to make these vital development steps towards improving the visitor accessibility and experience for visitors to Chiswick House. It is wonderful that the House and Gardens are integrated once more after over 60 years.”
This is a crucial moment for CHGT. Having taken over
management of the House just over 18 months ago, CHGT now faces the task
of unifying the House and Gardens from both management and presentational
perspectives. The running costs of the Estate amount to more than £1million
each year, over and above the support of the key stakeholders, English
Heritage Trust and the London Borough of Hounslow, this includes the costs
necessary to support crucial work to increase visitor numbers and the
public understanding of this wonderful heritage.
December 1, 2018
