Organised by Brent River ParkOur Brent River Park and charity are 50 Years old! Marking this historical anniversary we are launching our 'Big Five' ambitions for the park, growing it's capacity to safeguard and care for our wildlife and us. Together, let's make it happen!
We are delighted to share our ‘Big Five!’ Brent River Park ambitions, each one marking 10 years of the park’s 50 year history and in honour of our founder Luke FitzHerbert, who made the 7km park a reality.
The Brent River Park charity is a dedicated team of unpaid volunteers, and we’d love your support as we work to benefit our urban wildlife and community!
Please share this page with your nature loving friends and family. Your generosity is hugely appreciated. Thank you!
This Grade II listed Environmental Centre, opened by our charity in 1987, was once a vibrant space – an Ealing Park Ranger and volunteers base, a productive kitchen garden and a building for people of all ages, backgrounds and abilities to come together around nature, learning, and community.
Fallen into serious disrepair, the Stable Block still holds huge potential. With care and imagination, this historic building can once again become a welcoming space for environmental and climate education, volunteer projects, and community events rooted in the natural world, health and well-being, arts, crafts and more! And why stop there, improvements can also be created for Hanwell Zoo, as an already much-loved family favourite that compliments the importance of conservation, curiosity and education.
Let’s restore this once treasured historic building and give it a new lease of life for future generations.
CURB, our Clean Up the River Brent campaign, is working to restore the Brent so it can take pride of place at the heart of the Brent River Park. We are working on a range of initiatives to improve the river with stakeholders Imperial College, Thames21, Ealing Park Rangers, LAGER Can and the Environment Agency. We have removed over a hundred tonnes of rubbish from the watercourse, developed a unique electronic pollution monitoring system, taken regular water quality samples and brought the issue of sewage misconnections to national media attention. We are deeply engaged in the campaign to improve London’s rivers.
Once home to water voles, and teeming with fish, the Brent has the potential to support a thriving ecosystem once again.
Let’s make the Brent a haven for wildlife and a source of joy for our community.
In March 2024, a major milestone was reached - Ealing Council agreed with our campaign to designate all of Warren Farm NR, along with four surrounding Brent River Park meadows, as an official Local Nature Reserve. This rewilded meadow is one of the UK’s rarest habitats, home to endangered species and a quarter of London’s breeding Skylark population. Thanks to you our supporters, this is a huge and welcome success for biodiversity in the borough!
We are working to ensure that the management of our incoming Local Nature Reserve designation safeguards this wildlife-rich habitat, and any potential sports usage on the neighbouring privately-owned land does not unintentionally disturb our meadow’s thriving ecosystem. For example, fencing and buildings can create perches for predators to pick-off Skylark’s chicks and Bats and Barn Owls are vulnerable to floodlighting, noise and increased human activity. All of which would threaten our rewilding success here if not carefully protected with a Buffer Zone between the two sites. The derelict buildings also need to come down as they are a safety hazard.
Let’s see the vision through, finalise Local Nature Reserve status, look into creating a protective Brownfield Buffer Zone with Rewilding Hub and keep our meadow flourishing for good.
The Wharncliffe Viaduct is a key heritage and ecological landmark, once home to the Brown Long-Eared Bat - known for their distinctive large ears and whisper-quiet flight, today they are a scarce species in London in need of safeguarding. These bats were previously recorded hibernating inside the Viaduct, but over time access routes have become overgrown or unsuitable. Changing internal conditions looking at temperatures inside the Viaduct are in need of investigation so we can better understand whether roosting can be supported here again.
Over the past ten years surveys show a decline in bat activity, but with sensitive habitat management and exploring reopening the roost sites, there is real potential to support the return of these important and often misunderstood mammals once more with our friends at the Ealing Wildlife Group.
Let’s look after our bat friends and their environment – giving these vital quiet night-flyers a safe place to call home.
When our founder Luke FitzHerbert created the Brent River Park in 1975, his vision was to connect communities with nature by creating a continuous footpath and green corridor following the River Brent. At the time, green spaces were fenced-off, inaccessible and blighted by fly-tipping. Much of Luke’s dream was realised in the park we all know and love today, but not all.
With Ealing Council support, 50 new way marker posts are to be installed to celebrate our 50th Anniversary and the West London Regional Park proposal offers us the opportunity to make significant footpath improvements, keep Public Rights of Way open and link up with even more surrounding green spaces, and wildlife-rich areas in Ealing and with neighbouring boroughs! Our 7km Brent River Park will be central to the project and key to its success.
Let’s connect communities and nature with better, safer footpaths, clear signage and thriving wildlife corridors.
As Luke said during his Brent River Park campaign, 'Let us make it happen!'
Thank you!
Charities pay a small fee for our service. Learn more about fees
