Greenwich Park Revealed Update

After all the planning, the discussions and the consultations the Greenwich Park Revealed project (GPR) now moves forward with actual work on the ground beginning in November. You may already have seen some preparatory work in progress. Alice-Rose Hoyle, Landscape Project Manager, gives us the following update:

“We’re restoring the Flower Garden Lake to support wonderful wildlife, improve sustainability, improve the water quality, enhance the habitat with aquatic planting and landscaping and open up additional viewpoints. We’re going to drain and clean the lake and connect a borehole supply to provide a sustainable water source so that there is no longer reliance on a mains supply. Mains water is full of nitrates and phosphates which lead to algal blooms. The borehole water is not and so should mean a better water quality. We’ll create new bog areas and introduce new marginal planting edges around the lake using aquatic plants including yellow flag iris, brooklime and arrowhead. We will also be dividing some of the waterlilies currently growing in the Queen’s Orchard Pond and bringing those to the Flower Garden Lake. These works will support a rich biodiversity of wildlife and will provide a better home for frogs, toads, newts, dragonflies and damselflies. We will work with Environment Agency-certified experts to remove and permanently rehouse the fish in the lake to allow the conservation works to take place. We will also rehome a few non-native red-eared terrapins that have been introduced as unwanted pets. In the short term, ducks and moorhens will fly away but they will return when the lake is refilled. Annual vegetation works will also be carried out around the Lake at this time. There will be temporary closures of part of the Flower Garden, including the entrances at Blackheath Gate and Bower Avenue Gate and access to the lake during January to April while these works are delivered. The restored Flower Garden Lake will be a fantastic location for both wildlife and visitors by next Spring.”