Gunnersbury Park Restoration

The refurbishment and conservation project of the mid-17th century Grade II-listed large Mansion was appointed to Quinn London. The project has provided a museum to the community and studio workshops. A new café will also be built on the grounds near the Large Mansion.

We set up a working compound for welfare and storage and formed segregation route for the public. We also established a separate vehicle route. At the main gates to the site we installed a CCTV camera and placed one of our employees to record each visitor coming in and leaving the site.

Next to the Gunnersbury Large Mansion there is another smaller mansion which houses a museum and generates income through school visits. The smaller mansion can only be accessed through the main entrance which was closed off to the public which means that the loss of income was a genuine threat. To overcome this we put in place an access management system with a temporary pathway to allow the public to access the small mansion.

The Temple building is regularly used for providing history lessons for school children. In order to open the building and provide access to the community at the earliest opportunity we accelerated the works internally. Once opened, we moved onto renovating the exterior which meant that lessons could still take place despite the building not being handed over. Only then we moved onto renovating the exterior which meant that the lessons could take place despite the building not being completely handed over.

The extent of the works means that some of the facilities would be out of use for local residents and we strived to minimise that. For example, in the southern part of the site there are community gardens used by many local residents. Closing that section off for too long would seriously limit their ability to use it. To overcome this we began the works there before moving onto different parts of the project. This allowed the works to be handed over quickly so residents could resume their activities without unnecessary delay. Such extensive projects also often led to residents not being well informed. To combat this we and to provide opportunities for involvement we set out to provide work experience to the students within the London Borough of Ealing and run hard hat tours. To reach the rest of the community we sent out a monthly newsletter which provides information on the works being completed.

• GRADE II LISTED
• WORKING IN A LIVE PUBLIC PARK