Engineers at multidisciplinary consultancy Pick Everard are leading a team currently working on North Tyneside Council’s plans for restoring Northumberland Park to its Victorian glory.
A £2.2million grant awarded by the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) and Big Lottery Fund was announced in July. Restoration work will now get underway in the autumn, with completion by late 2015.
Northumberland Park, which lies between Tynemouth and North Shields, was opened in 1885 by the Duke of Northumberland and has woodland areas, formal flowerbeds, a pond, two bowling greens and a play site, but many of its historic features have been lost. The council’s aim is to ensure that interesting park features, including the medieval remains of St Leonard’s Hospital and a pet cemetery, are better protected and preserved.
With a combined project history of some £30m of heritage and masterplanning schemes, including HLF funded park restoration work, Pick Everard was appointed under the Government Procurement Service Management and Full Design Team Services Framework Agreement, and will supervise all park restoration, working in an integrated team with Gillespies, landscape architects with an excellent track record of HLF and Parks for People park regeneration.
The broad aim is to restore the Park’s lost features including historic planting schemes, fountains and statues, providing essential new visitor facilities to support the park’s long-term future, improve management and maintenance regimes, improving physical access to the park and a new interpretation of its unique history.
www.pickeverard.co.uk
Pick Everard was established in 1866 and is a multi-disciplinary practice with its head office in Leicester and regional offices in Bury St Edmunds, Cardiff, Derby, Glasgow, Inverness, London, Nottingham and Taunton.
The Parks for People programme uses Lottery funds to support the regeneration, conservation and increased enjoyment of public parks. The programme aims to improve the local environment and put parks firmly back at the heart of community life. In England the two Lottery Funds have been working in partnership from 2006 to deliver a multi-million pound investment in public parks of £150m. Over the period 2006-2012 the Big Lottery Fund (BIG) have committed up to £92m (in England only).