London Wildlife Trust (LWT) is the only charity dedicated solely to protecting the capital’s wildlife and wild spaces, and engaging London’s diverse communities through access to our nature reserves, campaigning, volunteering, conservation projects and outdoor learning. We stand up for wildlife in the city.
We work collaboratively with a broad range of partners, including government agencies, community groups, nature conservation charities, local authorities, housing associations, corporates, and developers. We support those who share our ambition for a London alive with nature, where everyone can experience and enjoy wildlife.
Purpose of this letter
The London Wildlife Trust has been invited to review ‘The Wimbledon Park Project’, the proposals by the All England Lawn Tennis Club (AELTC) to reconfigure part of Wimbledon Park, which lies adjacent to the AELTC Wimbledon facilities.
We have been given access to a range of documents that describe the project and have had a walkover of the site with Andrew Wayro of the AELTC to understand the context for the project.
We have been asked to provide our view of the proposals insofar as they might align with LWT’s aims and objectives.
LWT understanding of the current status, layout and use of Wimbledon Park
Wimbledon Park comprises a municipal park (to the north and east), and large lake in the centre of the park (used for a range of water sports), the private Wimbledon Park Golf course (to the west and south) and the Wimbledon Club, which provides a range of sports facilities on land immediately to the west of the lake. The municipal park and lake are owned and managed by the London Borough of Merton and is fully accessible to the public. The Wimbledon Park golf course is owned by the AELTC and is not generally accessible to the public.
Much of the park is a remnant of Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown’s Landscaping of Earl Spencer’s Wimbledon Park in 1765. Although some of the original Capability Brown landscape is still extant, notably the lake and several of the trees retained or planted by Capability Brown, the creation of the golf course, the Wimbledon Club and the municipal park and associated sporting facilities has altered and masked the original landscape layout.
It is designated Metropolitan Open Land and the park is listed within the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens by English Heritage for its special historic interest as a Registered Park and Garden grade II*. It is also listed in the register of Heritage at Risk primarily because the ‘lake is in poor condition, designed views are obscured and the divided ownership results in discordant landscape management’.
With the exception of the public park the site is designated as a Site of Borough Importance for Nature Conservation (SINC) Borough Grade 1. The SINC status is on account of ecological features such as the lake and marginal aquatic habitats, areas of rough grassland and a large number of veteran trees; the site also supports a large number of bats of various species, and a range of rare and uncommon invertebrates associated with the veteran trees and the lakeside habitats. The ecological value of the site is compromised by the intensive management of the golf course, the siltation of the lake and the poor quality of water entering the lake, and areas of excessive lighting that disrupt foraging behaviour of the more sensitive bat species such as Daubenton’s bat.
LWT understanding of the AELTC Wimbledon Park Project
The project is intended to provide a new show court and additional tennis courts on land currently occupied by the private golf course. This is to allow the qualifying event for the Wimbledon Championships to be played at Wimbledon in order to maintain the Wimbledon Championships as the premier tennis tournament. In addition, the project aims to improve the park for the local community by providing public access to a large part of the park hitherto accessible only to golf club members and enhance the overall ecology of Wimbledon Park by restoring a range of habitats.
LWT assessment of the Wimbledon Park Project
When reviewing the information provided by AELTC LWT has been mindful of the organisations core objectives i.e. would the project result in positive outcomes for wildlife, and would the project increase Londoners access to nature.
Positive outcomes for wildlife:
Current situation - the existing golf course is very intensively managed by mowing (even in areas of rough) thus its current ecological value is largely limited to the avenues of trees dividing the fairways, and a few locations where a relaxed management regime has allowed some pockets of rough grassland and wildflowers to become established. Even though most of the veteran trees are located in less intensively managed areas, their nature conservation value is constrained by the fact that they are not situated within complementary habitats and, in some cases, have been ‘boxed in’ by trees (often of incompatible species) planted at a much later date which have constrained the spreading aspect of the former parkland trees. Many of the invertebrate species associated with veteran trees also require areas of semi-natural grassland to complete their lifecycles. Likewise, species such as bats, which may use the veteran trees for roosting and foraging, will also fare better if the veteran trees were associated with other semi-natural grassland that provide additional foraging habitat. Use of pesticides on the golf course greens and fairways will also be limiting species diversity and contributing to some of the aquatic pollution of the lake. The two main watercourses feeding the lake are largely culverted beneath the golf course fairways.
Proposed changes - although, in part, replacing the intensively managed golf course with a large number of highly maintained grass courts will result in like-for-like replacement of rather sterile habitats, the proposed layout of the courts and the proposed management of the spaces between the courts would result in a greater extent of semi-natural habitat that could be created and managed to be more in keeping with the original acid grassland and meadows envisaged by Capability Brown. We are particularly interested in the opportunity to test and trail acid grassland restoration techniques involving exposing underlying soils and potentially augmenting any regeneration from the seedbank with seeds and plant material from nearby semi-natural habitats at Wimbledon Common and other local remnants of acid grassland or heathland habitat. Furthermore, it would seem that the new courts would occupy only about half of the current area taken by the golf course, thus allowing for other opportunities for habitat creation on the area proposed to be dedicated as an accessible public park. [N.b. See our comments below on the proposed park below]. The proposals also indicate opening up the culverts which, as well as providing the opportunity for creating valuable complementary wetland habitat, also allows for the installation of nature-based solutions to intercept and treat any water-borne pollution that currently enters the lake via the culverted watercourses.
Increasing access to nature:
Current situation - currently public access is limited to the municipal park to the north of the site and the lake which occupies the centre of Wimbledon Park. Although the lake has nature conservation interest which contributes to the SINC status of Wimbledon Park, much of the municipal park is of limited nature conservation interest except for the woodland along its northern boundary.
Proposed changes - the proposal to landscape and ecologically enhance the land currently occupied by the golf course to the south of the lake and make this an accessible public park for most of the year, significantly increase the local community’s ability to enjoy and appreciate the natural world close to where they live; especially for those residents living to the east of Wimbledon Park who are not within a reasonable walking distance of Wimbledon Common. The proposed provision of new entrances and walking loops that include the new park and board-walked routes through new habitats created around the lake will offer visitors a variety of experiences of nature. The opportunity to consider new uses for the existing clubhouse provides scope for interpretation or community uses such as conservation volunteering or education programmes.
Other considerations:
New show court - a new show court set within Wimbledon Park would introduce a major new built feature into a relatively open landscape. Whether this is appropriate from a landscape perspective if for others to determine as landscape heritage per se is not an area that sits with LWT’s remit unless the impact on landscape heritage would have a negative impact on the ecology of the site. With the information currently available to LWT we do not consider that a new show court within Wimbledon Park would have a significant impact on the ecology of the site provided the structure was sensitively designed and operated and the other proposals for ecological enhancement across Wimbledon park were fully implemented, including the potential additional mitigation/enhancement measures described below.
Enhancement of the lake - the lake, (and the veteran trees, are currently the most important ecological features of Wimbledon Park. However, the lake’s value is compromised by many years of siltation, inflow of sometimes polluted water, and limited areas of marginal aquatic habitat and clearly demarcated and managed wildlife sanctuary areas. The Wimbledon Park Project offers a potential solution to resolving some of these limitations on the ecology of the lake by providing direct benefits, such as the opening of culverts and installation of pollution control measures, and indirect benefits such the catalyst for and funding of the desilting and enhancement of the lake and lakeside habitats, such as reedbeds.
LWT position on the Wimbledon Park Project
We recognise that this is a contentious project. Despite its ambition to improve the ecology of Wimbledon Park and restore some of the original design elements of the Capability Brown landscape the project is also a series of contemporary interventions that will support and enhance the experience of the Wimbledon Championships, these elements are inherently antithetical to the original Capability Brown landscape and the current designation of this land as Metropolitan Open Land.
However, as stated previously, LWT’s ambition is to see all suitable land in London managed as sympathetically as possible for wildlife and to maximise opportunities for local people to experience and enjoy nature as close as possible to where they live. We acknowledge that our ambitions have to be achieved in the context of a dynamic, ever-changing city with multiple legitimate and sometimes conflicting uses for land. We do not compromise where wildlife conservation should be the primary consideration for the use and management of land such as sites comprising high quality priority habitat such as ancient woodland or chalk grassland; however, we want to collaborate with landowners who are actively seeking to improve the ecological value of their land by integrating it with their primary purpose for owning and managing land.
With this in mind and having had the opportunity to review the AELTC project documentation and for LWT staff to visit the site and understand the context and ambition of the proposals, I can confirm that LWT would like to offer its support for this ambitious and exciting project and explore further how we can work with you to make this the best that it could be.