Crystal Palace Park Trust is a charity that formed in 2016, recruiting an independent board of local experts and campaigners to support its development. It was incorporated in 2018 and obtained charitable status in 2021. In September 2023, after decades of community campaigning, Crystal Palace Park Trust took over custodianship of the unique landscape of Crystal Palace Park via a 125-year lease from the London Borough of Bromley to whom the park had been transferred following the dissolution of the Greater London Council.  

This corporate plan outlines our strategic priorities and planned programme of activity for 2025-27, following our first year of operation as guardians of the park. This document and an accompanying budget will be updated annually.

Read the full strategy

Crystal Palace Park is not your typical park

At over 200 acres Crystal Palace Park is far larger than most urban parks and is registered as Grade II* on the Historic England Register of Historic Parks and Gardens. Beloved as a ‘back garden’ to many people in the surrounding neighbourhoods, it is also of national and international significance due to its design by Sir Joseph Paxton as the grounds to the Victorian architectural masterpiece, The Crystal Palace, following its move from Hyde Park in 1854. As a result - as well as being home to a wide variety of plants, trees, animals, and birds - the park is rich in unique heritage including the 170-year-old world-famous dinosaurs, sphinxes, and Italian Terraces as well as a younger, but no less unique, architect-designed outdoor concert venue. 

Today, around one million people visit the park every year, to relax and meet friends and family, take part in sports and physical exercise, enjoy world-class acts during summer festivals, or simply have a moment of peace and enjoyment of nature.

Sadly, despite its past grandeur, challenges securing the funding needed to maintain a park of this complexity and scale, have left the park a ghost of its former glory. It is now Grade II* listed and has been on the Heritage at Risk Register since 2009.

However, the park is on the cusp of benefiting from an ambitious park-wide regeneration programme, the next two phases of which will see £17.75m invested into its landscape, infrastructure, and heritage assets. The world-famous dinosaurs and Italian Terraces will be restored, there will be a new Visitor Centre and playground, and south London’s very own hidden gem - the Victorian Subway – has been reopened as an events and arts space. At the heart of the park is the Greater London Authority-run, brutalist wonder - the National Sports Centre - which is also subject to its own multi-million regeneration programme in the coming years and for which the Trust is a strategic stakeholder.

Capital works are due to start in the park in Spring 2025 and will be accompanied by a vibrant heritage engagement programme, complementing the growing reputation of the park as a venue for culture, music, theatre, and dance. It is expected that the growing profile of the park will support our aim to expand and diversify the park’s visitor base and increase annual visitor numbers by 35%. 

Thanks to significant funding from the National Lottery’s Heritage and Community Funds, the Wolfson Foundation, the Garfield Weston Foundation, and the London Marathon Foundation amongst others, plus the continued support of Historic England and the London Borough of Bromley, a new era is coming.

Vision, Mission, and Values

Vision Crystal Palace Park Trust’s vision is:

‘To make Crystal Palace Park an outstanding modern park for London, while retelling the history of the park for the nation.’

Mission Crystal Palace Park Trust’s mission is:

‘To protect, manage and improve Crystal Palace Park as a green, historic, ecological, recreational, sporting, cultural, and educational resource in the interests of the community and other park users.’

Values Crystal Palace Park Trust’s values are:

• Engage: through communication and involvement with the local community.

• Explore: seek new and innovative ways of gaining support from stakeholders and partners in developing a sustainable future for the park.

• Enhance: by supporting community groups and volunteers working in the interests of the park and the Trust’s aim and objectives.

• Educate: to build a shared knowledge and interest in the park’s history and ecology and to provide educational opportunities.