The restoration of Clissold Park and Clissold House was one of the largest changes to the park in its modern history. Completed in 2011–12 after years of campaigning, planning and fundraising, the £8.9 million project restored the historic house and landscape while introducing new facilities for the millions of people who use the park.
Clissold Park User Group played an important part in the long campaign for restoration and in the development of the eventual project. CPUG had been campaigning for the restoration of Clissold House since the 1990s, and those efforts continued over many years before funding was finally secured. When Clissold House reopened, Hackney Council described CPUG’s contribution to the project as “invaluable”.
The successful restoration therefore did not begin with the Lottery-funded project of the late 2000s. It was the culmination of a much longer effort by local people, CPUG, Hackney Council and others to secure the future of the house and improve the surrounding park.
A house and park in need of restoration
Clissold House was built in the late eighteenth century as a private country villa and became part of the public park when Clissold Park opened in 1889. It is now Grade II* listed, while Clissold Park itself is Grade II on the Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest.
During the twentieth century both the house and park deteriorated. A later submission by Hackney Council to a parliamentary inquiry described the park as having fallen into disrepair during the late twentieth century, with its popularity declining as a result. Clissold House had become largely derelict apart from a small café and was on the national register of historic buildings at risk.
By 2009, English Heritage recorded the condition of the Grade II* house as “fair”, but it remained on the Heritage at Risk Register. Only part of the building was occupied and a major restoration was still required to secure its future and bring it properly back into public use.
The problems extended beyond the house. The historic landscape, lakes and former course of the New River required attention, while park infrastructure and facilities needed substantial improvement.
A long campaign for restoration
CPUG’s efforts to secure the restoration of Clissold House can be traced back to the 1990s. Surviving papers from the group document its campaigning during this period and its involvement in efforts to find a viable future for the deteriorating historic building.
The campaign was not quickly resolved. Hackney Council later recorded that there had been several unsuccessful attempts to secure restoration funding before the eventual project succeeded. CPUG continued to press for the restoration of the house over many years, helping to keep its future on the local agenda.
The surviving CPUG archive will allow this part of the story to be documented in greater detail, including the group’s campaigning and the earlier attempts to obtain funding. This page will be expanded as those records are examined.
By the time the eventual restoration was completed, those involved saw it as the culmination of a campaign stretching back decades. At the reopening, then CPUG chair Caroline Millar recalled:
“Local people have campaigned for decades to save the house and help secure funding for its restoration.”
She also described CPUG’s longstanding ambition for Clissold House to become the “heart of the park” and a hub for activity there.
From campaigning to a funded project
A major step forward came in March 2007, when the Heritage Lottery Fund and Big Lottery Fund awarded Hackney Council a £339,000 development grant through their Parks for People programme.
A development grant did not fund the restoration itself. It allowed the Council and its partners to develop the proposals, undertake consultation and prepare the detailed plans needed to apply for the much larger grant required to carry out the work.
The initial ambition was for an approximately £8 million regeneration scheme, with Hackney Council seeking around £4.5 million in Lottery funding.
The subsequent application was successful. The Heritage Lottery Fund and Big Lottery Fund ultimately awarded £4.46 million, while Hackney Council invested around £4.1 million. Contemporary sources generally describe the complete project as costing £8.9 million.
After years of campaigning and earlier unsuccessful attempts to secure funding, the restoration could finally go ahead.
The project was much more than a repair programme for Clissold House. It became an integrated restoration encompassing the listed house, historic landscape, water features and other park buildings, alongside new and improved facilities for people using the park.
Shaping the plans with park users
Community consultation formed a substantial part of developing the project.
An initial public consultation took place in July 2006 and helped establish objectives and proposals. A further major consultation was undertaken in 2008 as the detailed plans were developed. It included staffed exhibitions, tours of Clissold House, workshops, presentations, meetings, a schools survey, questionnaires and online consultation. More than 230 questionnaires had been returned and analysed by August 2008.
People were asked about specific proposals including the future use of Clissold House, play and sports facilities, the water feature following the historic course of the New River and the animal enclosures.
The consultation made a demonstrable difference to the plans. Strong support was recorded for a café terrace on the south side of Clissold House. A proposed sunken wheels park was moved further into the park in response to concerns about noise. Plans to remove the aviary were reconsidered after people argued for its retention, while proposals to remove railings around the lakes were abandoned following concerns about child and wildlife safety.
CPUG worked closely with Hackney Council during the development and delivery of the project, representing the interests of park users and contributing to the process as the plans evolved. When the restoration was completed, the Council explicitly acknowledged that relationship and described CPUG’s input as “invaluable”.
Work begins
Following the development, funding and procurement stages, the major construction programme began in 2010.
The work was divided into separate contracts for Clissold House and the park. Council records show that the house restoration was undertaken by Mansell Contractors and the park works by Osborne Contractors.
The scale of the work meant that this was much more than a cosmetic refurbishment.
Restoring Clissold House
The restoration brought much more of Clissold House back into active public use.
Historic features including cornicing, fireplaces and the house’s skylight were restored, while modern services and facilities were introduced. Five function rooms were renovated for community, educational and business use as well as private events, and a new café was created with indoor accommodation and a large terrace overlooking the landscaped grounds.
The aim was not simply to conserve an eighteenth-century building as a monument, but to give it a viable role at the centre of a busy twenty-first-century public park.
That closely reflected CPUG’s ambitions for the building. At its reopening, Caroline Millar described the group’s vision as having been for Clissold House to become “the heart of the park”, providing a hub for activity there.
Restoring and improving the park
The project extended across the surrounding landscape.
The two lakes underwent landscaping, desilting and structural improvements, alongside tree and shrub planting. Work was also carried out on the crescent-shaped water feature opposite Clissold House, following part of the historic course of the New River.
The New River itself had been shortened in 1946 to terminate at the East Reservoir, so the water feature created here should not be confused with a restoration of the functioning New River through Clissold Park. Contemporary project material sometimes referred to this work as restoration or extension of the “New River”, but the water feature in the park today is supplied independently.
Other work included new and renovated animal and bird enclosures, landscaping around the animal area and improvements to the former bowls pavilion to provide education and community facilities. Biodiversity was also incorporated into the restoration programme.
New recreational facilities included a children’s play area, a sunken wheels park for skating and BMX use, a multi-use games area for basketball and five-a-side football, and table tennis. New signage was installed across the park.
The playground illustrates the community involvement in the project particularly well. When it opened in 2011, Caroline Millar highlighted the involvement of children and parents in its design and the resulting range of facilities for different age groups.
Clissold House reopens
Although much of the park work was completed during 2011, the culmination of the project came when Clissold House reopened to the public on 3 January 2012, following around 18 months of intensive renovation.
The National Lottery Heritage Fund marked 2012 as the completion year of the ambitious project to revitalise the park and bring the house back into public use. The work combined restoration of the Georgian house, pleasure grounds, park buildings, trees and water features with new facilities for visitors.
For CPUG, the reopening represented the achievement of something the group and local people had pursued over many years.
Caroline Millar welcomed the reopening by saying:
“It is a real pleasure to see this beautiful house come back into public use.”
Her comments also looked beyond the completion of the building work. CPUG intended to continue playing a role in the future of the house and park after the restoration was finished.
A restoration with a lasting legacy
The restoration fundamentally changed the condition and use of Clissold House and many of the park’s facilities.
Most significantly for the historic building, English Heritage was able to report in 2012 that Clissold House had been “re-invigorated”. Its restoration secured a viable public use for a building that had previously been largely derelict and at risk.
The project also left much of the infrastructure familiar to park users today: the restored house and café, function and community spaces, playground, wheels park, games area, improved water features and landscape, animal facilities and education space.
The partnership did not end when the building work finished. At completion, Hackney’s Mayor Jules Pipe said the Council looked forward to continuing to work closely with CPUG to help ensure the park and house became the community hub envisaged for them.
For CPUG, the restoration is therefore an important part of the group’s own history as well as the history of Clissold Park. The restoration completed in 2011–12 was the culmination of a long campaign in which the User Group had been involved since the 1990s, followed by years of planning, consultation and collaboration once the successful project took shape.