Victoria lives locally in Forest Hill with her husband, two sons, dog and cat and prior to joining the Trust was a member of the Horniman Museum and Gardens’ senior team, latterly asacting CEO. She is a trustee for Kids in Museums, a charity working with museums, heritage sites and cultural organisations nationwide to make them more welcoming for children, young people and families and also for HOME Manchester, an independent cinema, theatre and art gallery in central Manchester.

Meet Victoria, CEO

“Since joining Crystal Palace Park Trust last summer following over a decade at the Horniman, it has been an absolute whirlwind of activity!

Alongside getting to know the brilliant team of dedicated staff and trustees, I have had the pleasure of meeting so many lovely people in the wider park community, all sharing an absolute commitment to restoring the park to its magnificent former glory. I knew the park was special to so many people but perhaps hadn’t fully appreciated how much of a central role it plays in so many people’s lives. I’d like to thank everyone for giving me such a warm welcome.

As the new custodians of the park with a 125-year lease from the London Borough of Bromley and as a charity, the Trust has been working hard over the past year to create the solid foundations upon which to build a resilient organisation – we want to make sure we’re here for the long haul. This has involved setting up robust governance, finance, HR, legal and digital systems, policies and procedures, recruiting new staff and freelancers, and contracting reliable external partners to deliver some of our key services such as Gavin Jones Ltd, who manage our gardening and wider landscape maintenance across this huge 200-acre park.

We have also been nurturing relationships with some talented festival organisers and artists to showcase more diverse and creative events and liaising with local councillors and neighbours on how to manage their impact. I am particularly intrigued to experience Polygon Live LDN coming up in May which promises to be the largest outdoor spatial audio festival ever to hit the UK. We are also looking forward to hosting some sold out headline acts as part of the Festival Republic programme and how could anyone not be excited about Nile Rodgers & Chic coming to Crystal Palace Park as part of the South Facing Festival line-up!

The team have also been liaising with a range of inspiring community and academic partners over recent months as we look to build our engagement with families, young people and some of the most vulnerable or marginalised in our local area. As our learning and engagement programme develops there will be whole raft of ways to get more involved with the park whether it is through arts and culture, heritage or gardening activities; volunteering opportunities; or joining one of our new advisory panels. We will make sure to publish information here and on the website so do keep a look out.

Over and above the day-to-day running of the park and delivery of activities, a key priority for us is the delivery of the regeneration plan in partnership with the London Borough of Bromley. Hot on the heels of the restoration and launch of the Subway last September supported by Historic England amongst others, thanks to the National Lottery Heritage Fund and other generous funders, you will start to see work beginning onsite in the next few months to restore the grade 1 listed dinosaurs and terraces, create a new dinosaur-themed playground, visitor centre and heritage trail and make improvements to pathways, lighting and wayfinding. There will be detailed information shared soon about how to continue enjoying the many destinations in the park whilst this work is beingcarried out.

We will continue to fundraise for future phases of the regeneration plan alongside other projects over the coming years. But over and above this, we need to raise over £2million annually to manage and care for the park, enhance the visitor experience and deliver our wide-ranging education, engagement and cultural programmes. We are committed to every penny raised in the park being spent in the park and on enhancing the offer and services for our local community and visitors. So, we will be introducing new and exciting opportunities over the coming months to financially support the park, if you are in a position to, via new experiences, events, products and supporter programmes.

If you would like to learn more about our planned activities for 2025, please read our Corporate Strategy and Plan 2025-27 to be published soon on our website.

Next month, we’ll introduce you to another member of the team so you can learn more about their particular area of work but in the meantime, if you have any questions, ideas or feedback, please don’t hesitate to get in touch via contact@crystalpalaceparktrust.org.

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