6 minute read
Baroque and Roll!
from Great West #8
by 3Fox
Hounslow has confirmed its hip status, with the return of two of London’s coolest music festivals, Lovebox and Citadel, to Gunnersbury Park this summer. Now in the final stages of a £50 million makeover, overseen by the Gunnersbury Estate Community Interest Company, this historic park is marking itself as a cultural destination in its own right.
Shailja Morris reports
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Citadel revellers in Gunnersbury Park in the summer of 2018
Lovebox
It was once home to royalty, before becoming the playground of the super wealthy Rothschild family. The Gunnersbury Park Georgian mansion and grounds, with centuries of history steeped within its rolling acres, is speeding into the modern day and gaining some seriously cool credentials along the way.
Following a £21 million renovation completed last summer, the park’s neo-classical mansion forms the backdrop to hip music festivals, Lovebox and Citadel.
WORLD CLASS ACTS
Last December, Gunnersbury Estate Community Interest Company and MAMA Festivals announced the return of the two events for 2019. These festivals are putting the park on London's cultural map, attracting 110,000 music fans from across the country, with an impressive line-up of acts.
Following Lovebox and Citadel, a three-week season of immersive cinema lured 55,000 visitors, with Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo and Juliet shown on giant outdoor screens, accompanied by live music, theatre performances and dance.
The historic grounds and mansions of Gunnersbury Park in Hounslow
But it’s not all about appealing to younger people across west London and beyond. Gunnersbury Park and Museum, with its beautiful historic buildings, water features and grounds, are free for the public to explore. Visitors can enjoy a rolling programme of weekly events aimed at the community, including the popular Little Flamingos parents and toddler group, a busy schools programme and reminiscence sessions for people living with dementia.
As David Bowler, CEO of Gunnersbury Estate Community Interest Company (CIC), explains: “Our aim for Gunnersbury Park is to be a contemporary modern park and museum that serves the people of west London. Although we’re historic, Gunnersbury is also a place where you can take family strolls and drop into the museum and Victorian kitchen or enjoy taking part in creative workshops. Our business model blends commercial and leisure offers with a high quality education and community events programme.
"We have around eight schools visiting the park every week, as part of our schools’ programme, as we also have an educational offer. The festivals and Secret Cinema have a cultural offer that west London hasn’t provided before. There is a strong value and legitimacy in bringing commercial popular cultural events to west London. If we can host them here, then that’s what we’re about.
"Gunnersbury Estate CIC is not a charity. We are a non-profit business and take a commercial approach. Every penny we make as a profit is reinvested into Gunnersbury Park and Museum."
GRAND DESIGNS
The landscape and buildings of Gunnersbury Park have now been lovingly restored to their 18th and 19th century heyday. That’s been no mean feat given the scale of the place. Gunnersbury takes up an impressive 75.6ha, which includes a mix of historic parkland, open space and leisure amenities.
The park is now in its second phase of renovation, which will see the completion of a £15 million leisure complex in summer 2019, to include a new sports hall with gym changing rooms.
There will also be a cafe, floodlit hard court tennis courts, all-weather football pitches, new grass football pitches, three cricket pitches and a rugby pitch. There is also the possibility of a treetop obstacle course attraction such as 'Go Ape!'
The re-opened Gunnersbury Park Museum, which sits across three floors in the main mansion, has also been subject to a complete renovation and is considered by many locals to be one of – if not the best – museum in the area.
As the local history museum for Hounslow, it holds an extensive collection of artefacts from the borough’s prehistoric era, through to the 20th century.
ARCHITECTURAL CURIOSITIES
In addition to two mansions, Gunnersbury Park has 21 Grade II and II* listed buildings and a wealth of architectural and landscape curiosities, ranging from Princess Amelia’s bathhouse to classical landscape design vistas – carefully managed tree canopies that offer ‘surprise’ views, which seem to jump out at you.
These views have been skillfully recreated at Gunnersbury. A visitor looking across the round pond to the classical temple and across the rolling parkland to the mansion can enjoy a sudden vista of the orangery.
The horseshoe lake also reflects the magnificence of the main mansion, having been filled over in the 20th century, with a staggering number of trees – approximately 2,500. The initial phase of renovation focused on the house and expanded museum to the tune of around £21 million.
This has been transformed from three ground floor rooms and a Victorian kitchen, to nine galleries over three floors. The neo-classical mansion has been rendered back to its creamy white facade and archways have been restored.
In fact, Gunnersbury Park and Museum has all the characteristics of a large National Trust property, with the advantage that visitors do not have to pay for entry to explore this extraordinary historic jewel in west London’s crown.
GUNNERSBURY ESTATE COMMUNITY INTEREST COMPANY
Outlining his vision for Gunnersbury Park and Museum, David Bowler, chief executive of the CIC, says: “Our ambition is to be part-and-parcel of the broad offer in west London. We recognise supporting inward investment, culture, leisure and heritage is important in terms of how businesses will look at the area. We want to continue to contribute to supporting the local economy.”
The Gunnersbury Estate Community Interest Company was set up in May 2018. It provides freedom to operate in a commercial manner, while maintaining accountability to its two partner councils, Hounslow and Ealing.
As Bowler says: "The CIC is working to transform Gunnersbury into a sustainable, high quality public space that serves residents, businesses and visitors. Our museum service already caters to an audience of 600,000 residents. Once our leisure complex is up and running it will be one of the biggest sports centres in west London. It is unusual for a non-profit business to be responsible for such a diverse facility and we relish the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead.”
FESTIVAL FEVER
It’s official: Lovebox and Citadel festivals will return to Gunnersbury Park this July, following hugely successful debuts last summer.
One of London’s most-loved music events, Lovebox used to be held in Victoria Park in east London where it was staged between 2005 and 2016.
In December last year, organisers MAMA Festivals were given the green light to repeat the success in its new west London home. MAMA Festivals also deliver other successful and critically acclaimed events including Wilderness (Oxfordshire) and The Great Escape (Brighton).
Following on from Lovebox's stellar line-up last year, which included acts such as Skepta and Childish Gambino (pictured on stage, above), the festival is sure to attract large crowds of younger music fans to Hounslow and Ealing again in 2019.
In February, acts were announced for the festival including hip-hop veterans Cypress Hill, Chance the Rapper, and Solange.
Citadel has taken place on the Sunday following Lovebox since 2015. Headline acts in Gunnersbury Park, 2018, included Tame Impala and CHVRCHES. In 2019, Catfish & The Bottlemen, Rag N' Bone Man and Friendly Fires will be the main acts. The festival also has non-musical content that offers a wider audience appeal, including for families.
Councillor Steve Curran, leader of Hounslow Council, says: “It’s an exciting era for Gunnersbury Park and we’re pleased to be hosting both Lovebox and Citadel festivals for a second year this summer, for the enjoyment of the local community.
"The festivals are amongst the most popular events on the music calendar, not only in London, but across the country. Securing these events at Gunnersbury Park for another year puts both Hounslow and Ealing boroughs on the cultural map and builds our credibility as a venue at the cutting edge of contemporary music and culture."
He adds: “The not-for-profit Gunnersbury Estate Community Interest Company (CIC), which looks after the day-to-day operations and oversees the park’s educational, leisure and cultural opportunities has done a fantastic job so far and we excitedly anticipate another successful festival weekend later this year.”
Julian Bell, leader of Ealing Council, says: “Gunnersbury Park is an ideal venue for hosting large public events. It has undergone a hugely positive transition in recent years and hosting these festivals once again represents another boost for the park, further underlining our reputation as a place to see great live events.”
