The Kitchen Garden at Chiswick House and Gardens has existed on this site since 1682. It has changed ownership and been through various states of neglect and disrepair over the last 250 years. However, it wasn’t until 2005 when it was restored and replanted by an enthusiastic group of local residents, determined to use this historic place as a community resource. This voluntary team of community gardeners launched the Chiswick House Kitchen Garden Community project. Their hard work and tenacity turned it into a community kitchen garden for teaching local residents, schools and community groups about horticulture and growing food.
Chiswick House and Gardens Trust took over all the walled gardens in December 2009 and embarked on a restoration project funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund. The grant funded the conversion of the old stables in the Kitchen Garden into a Learning Centre and covered area providing additional covered and wet weather spaces.
Since 2010 we have continued the mission to dedicate the Kitchen Garden as a community resource. We have an established the Kitchen Garden volunteer programme with over 50 regular volunteers and community partners, and have won many awards: Walled Garden of the Year, Gold and Overall Category Winner, Our Community, Gold for the Chiswick House Kitchen Garden Volunteers, RHS ‘It’s Your Neighbourhood Award’, Outstanding for the Kitchen Garden Volunteers, RHS ‘IYN’ Certificate of Distinction for the Kitchen Garden Volunteers. If you’d like to get involved, visit our volunteer pages to find out more.
We are now actively fundraising so that we can invest in dedicated Community Outreach resources to build our programme of volunteer gardening, horticultural therapy, skills development and schools programme. This is even more important and vital now.
