The Grotto, Wanstead Park
The Grotto, Wanstead Park
We led the production of a multidisciplinary Conservation Management Plan for the Grotto in Wanstead Park, on behalf of the City Corporation.
The Grotto is a Grade II listed, eighteenth-century landscape feature which was severely damaged by fire in 1884. Most recently, it had been added to Historic England’s Heritage at Risk Register.
The Grotto remained a focal feature of Wanstead Park, even in its ruinous state. It continued to attract visitors as a material reminder of English culture, literature, and garden design. Despite its condition, The Grotto was highly regarded by local residents, with growing interest in making it more accessible and restoring elements of its former grandeur. The aim of the Conservation Management Plan was – through consultation with key stakeholders such as Epping Forest, Historic England, the Georgian Group and Friends of Wanstead Parklands – to agree the future management of the Grotto in order to remove it from the Heritage at Risk Register.
Our engineers, working in collaboration with architects Donald Insall Associates, detailed a set of repairs which included repointing with lime mortar; consolidating fallen and decayed brickwork; removing all vegetation and filling remaining voids; and removing failed and loose flaunching and reinstating this with lime mix.
We also detailed new steel structural supports to the building and the fixing of a steel armature to the rear elevation of the Grotto as a reversible means of securing the structure and providing lateral restraint to the main façade.
As part of our work, the Plan included a costed Action Plan of next steps including recommending an additional Restoration and Maintenance Plan to commence remedial and restoration works to the front façade. The work included input from specialists Survey & Design Partnership and James Brennan Associates.
Client: City of London
Architect: Donald Insall Associates