The transformation of The Royal Parks’ much-loved Brompton Cemetery has scooped top prize for Restoration or Conservation at the 2018 Museum + Heritage awards.
LDA Design was appointed by the Royal Parks to design and manage the HLF ‘Parks for People’ funded scheme to bring the cemetery into the 21st century. Our team, led by Sally Prothero, developed a masterplan setting out ways in which this historic landscape could be restored and revitalised.
Grade I listed Brompton Cemetery, the resting place of Suffragette Emeline Pankhurst, is one of London’s ‘Magnificent Seven’ garden cemeteries built around the capital in the 1830s to ease the city’s overcrowded graveyards and provide much-needed public green space.
Today, the Park and Garden contain more than 35 Grade II and II* listed buildings and monuments, together with 35,000 gravestones, 60 species of tree and abundant wildlife. It is the only cemetery in the country owned by the Crown and managed by The Royal Parks on behalf of the nation. It is also listed as a Site of Nature Conservation.
The £6.2 million restoration includes a new visitor and research centre; the cemetery’s Victorian chapel has been restored and is now open to the public.
Nigel Thorne, Project Manager, Brompton Cemetery Conservation Project, The Royal Parks, said of the win:
“The Brompton Cemetery Conservation Project delivery team believe this has been one of the most challenging but rewarding projects to have been involved with – leaving a legacy on a self-sustaining project for future generations to come and definitely a deserved and worthy winner of this national award.”
Please contact Sally for more information.
Image: Copyright Huddle / Max A Rush
