New community spaces at Chiswick House & Gardens

Aim

We did it! Thanks to very generous support our brand-new community spaces will be fitted out so they’re ready to welcome everyone from day 1

What are we building?

• The Learning Hub: a new, net-carbon-zero building, designed to support our expanding school and community programmes and to welcome people year-round to connect, learn and celebrate. 
• The Learning Yard: an outdoor space, nestled between the Learning Hub, glasshouses and the Artists' Studios. With a coffee cart, outdoor seating, an awning and abundant planting, this forgotten corner of the estate will be transformed into a place for everyone to learn or to linger.  
• The Kitchen Garden Hub: A brand new base for volunteers with a kitchen, sheltered seating area, storage and a drying room. Including an accessible toilet, these news spaces will mean more people will be able to help with the everyday care of the gardens and enjoy the benefits of working together.

With the full opening planned for September 2026, we only have a few months to get these spaces ready for everyone to use. It is vital that we raise the final funds we need to ensure that these spaces are fully-functioning from day one.

We can’t do it without you. We’ve already raised £5.2 million. We’ve got just £165,000 to go.

Help us get this project over the finish line and be part of the future of Chiswick House & Gardens.

Your support to this project will help us:

• Welcome 5000+ schoolchildren every year to connect with nature and learn where food comes 
• Engage 7000+ community participants each year, supporting creativity, connection and wellbeing
• Provide much-needed space and shelter for breaks and 'indoor' tasks for our volunteers and visiting groups.  
• Create new spaces for visitors to enjoy and hire for celebrations, meetings and classes

We’ve got just £165,000 to raise, and we urgently need your help.  

The funds raised now will pay for the final essentials that will bring these spaces fully to life and make them welcoming to all. This includes fitting out the kitchens, storage, awnings, indoor & outdoor furniture, raised beds, planters and plants. 

Want to see the spaces first? Book a tour of the construction site.

Why is it important we create these new spaces?

• 37% of London children aged 3–11 never play outdoors in green spaces*
• 73% aged 7–14 say they see more wildlife on screens than in real life**

The Learning Hub & Yard will enable us to welcome over 5000 school children every year to our Schools Programme from more than 90 schools. This means that 10x as many children will get the chance to spend time in the beautiful Kitchen Garden seeing how plants grow first-hand and discovering the many varieties of birds and bugs that call the Gardens home. 

At the moment, the spaces we have are insufficient to support this. We can't even keep a full classroom of children protected from the rain during poor weather days!

We regularly hear about the positive impact that these outdoor sessions have on students. One child told us: 

"My favourite part was coming back in another season and seeing how things grew. I want to start growing apples myself!"

• Spending time in green spaces helps adults feel calmer, less stressed and more positive***

These carefully designed spaces will mean more people with a wider range of needs can take part in our community programme. Every year twice as many people will be able to enjoy nature-based activity, community connection and the wellbeing that comes from spending time outdoors. That’s more than 7000 people from over 100 charity partners.

The Kitchen Garden Hub will provide shade, shelter and practical facilities for our volunteers and visiting school groups. It will also allow us to add weekends and evening slots to our volunteering offer, giving more people the chance to help with the everyday care of the gardens and enjoy the benefits of working together and outside. 

The benefits of this are clear to us. As one of our volunteers Mark puts it: 

"What I enjoy most is the camaraderie. Mucking in with a group of people from different walks of life is a great social leveller. When you’re crouched on all fours pulling up weeds, conversations flow very naturally."

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About the project

Over the last 18 months Chiswick House & Gardens Trust have been bringing long-forgotten and under-used areas around the Kitchen Garden to life in creative, practical and inclusive ways.

Last spring we created nineteen Artists' Studios in historic sheds and stables around the Kitchen Garden, welcoming artists and makers into these inspiring new workspaces in the summer.   

In November 2025 we began building the Learning Hub & Yard along with the Kitchen Garden Hub. These new spaces will significantly increase our capacity to welcome schoolchildren, community groups, volunteers and visitors to Chiswick House & Gardens. They will also provide much-needed new income streams that will improve the Trust's long-term financial resilience. 

Your support will mean more people of all ages and from all walks of life will have the chance to enjoy all that is special about Chiswick House & Gardens.

About Chiswick House & Garden Trust

Chiswick House & Gardens is a vital, historic green haven run by a small independent charity. Free to enter and open 365 days a year, it holds a special place in the lives of the local community.  At the heart of the gardens is the Kitchen Garden, an enchanting productive space where visitors have connected with nature and the seasons for over 300 years. 

Credits & acknowledgements

Film:

By Elevate Community Productions - Blaise Singh and Saran Puvaneswaran
Additional footage shared by Arfhan Razak

With thanks to: 

Community partners: Green Corridor, Ealing Deaf Women, West London Ghanian Association, Timegivers
Schools: Cavendish Primary School
Facilitators: Ayesha, Frankie, Manju
Staff: Xanthe, Sue, Emily, Marley, Sally, Fanny, Rosie, Philippa, Tara
Volunteers & supporters: June, Jen, Sarah, Susi
Artists: Elske, Gillian, Julie, Madina
Photographs: Andre Pattenden, Chris Frost, Shot by Amol

Sources:

* (Natural England / London Wildlife Trust)  ** (RSPB / National Trust / WWF) *** (Public Health England) 

This project successfully funded on 22nd April 2026