Brightening the future with heritage from the past: Crystal Palace Park Trust is making important progress in updating the 170-year-old park. Pic: HTA Design
A charitable foundation has made a grant of half-a-million pounds to the Crystal Palace Park Trust towards the historic park’s regeneration projects.
“The grant, over two years, will support work to preserve and regenerate historic features and landscapes within Crystal Palace Park, including conservation of the Grade I-listed Crystal Palace Dinosaurs,” the Park Trust announced today.
The money is coming from the Garfield Weston Foundation which, since it was established in 1958, has made donations of more than £1.5billion. In the most recent financial year, the Foundation gave more than £100million to nearly 1,800 charities across the country.
Preservation order: iguanodons, two of the Crystal Palace Park Dinosaurs to be conserved
The world-famous Crystal Palace dionsaur statues – of dinosaurs, prehistoric marine animals and more – were the world’s first full-scale, 3D representations of prehistoric creatures when they were unveiled in 1854 – making Crystal Palace the first “Jurassic Park”.
“They are both unique and scientifically important, as well as a much-loved part of our ongoing fascination with prehistoric life,” the Crystal Palace Park Trust said today in announcing the significant donation towards their preservation.
“Their planned conservation work should see them removed from Historic England’s Heritage At Risk Register and saved for future generations to enjoy.”
The Garfield Weston grant will also support renovation of the park’s Geological Court and Tidal Lakes – the landscape surrounding the prehistoric models – as well as the creation of a new Visitor Centre housing interpretation and displays telling the story of Crystal Palace Park, a heritage trail around the park and a dinosaur-themed playground.
The grant is in addition to the £5million received from The National Lottery Heritage Fund last year towards this phase of the Crystal Palace Park regeneration, as well as grants from the Wolfson Foundation, Pilgrim Trust and the London Marathon Foundation.
Thankful: Victoria Pinnington, CEO of the Crystal Palace Park Trust
Victoria Pinnington, the Park Trust’s CEO, said: “We’re so thankful to receive such significant support from the Garfield Weston Foundation. The regeneration of the park is a transformational project, and we’re grateful to the Foundation for recognising the benefits this will bring, not only to the heritage of our site but also to all our visitors from across south London and beyond.”
And Duncan Wilson, Historic England’s chief exec, said: “The Garfield Weston Foundation’s generous investment in Crystal Palace Park is very welcome, particularly as it will support the conservation of the internationally important Dinosaurs – as Sir David Attenborough put it, ‘This is where public outreach of science began’.
“We placed these unique sculptures on the Heritage at Risk Register in 2020 because of our concerns about their structural stability and deterioration. Thorough investigations by Historic England and partners to understand these issues have laid the groundwork for new comprehensive repairs so that these world-famous beasts can be loved for longer.”
The restoration and reopening of Crystal Palace Subway, the first element of the ambitious park-wide regeneration scheme, was completed in September 2024 and has won a prestigious National Railway Heritage Award for best partnership project.
The next stage of restoration and regeneration work will begin this spring.
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