Meet the Greenwich Park Revealed team

Job title:
Greenwich Park Revealed Programme Manager

What does your role involve? 
Co-ordinating the delivery of Greenwich Park Revealed, on time and on budget.

What is your background?
After graduating in botany I worked in Botanic Gardens at Oxford and Kew. Then came twenty years managing Country Parks in Staffordshire and Kent before landing my dream job as Park Manager of Greenwich Park in 2009.

What excites you about your role?
It took three years of hard work by a large team to get a successful National Lottery Heritage Fund award and just as we were about to start delivery the pandemic struck. Eighteen months later and we’re just getting going - I can’t wait! There are so many aspects to the project it’s hard to single out one; making the iconic view from Wolfe statue worthy of a World Heritage Site, then there is the archaeology, interpretation and some of the engagement events will be lots of fun – salsa dance classes around Wolfe anyone?

What do you think will be the biggest challenge?
The one thing about Greenwich Park that keeps me awake at night is tree pests and diseases. Our amazing historic avenues of trees are under attack and we need to plan for the future or they will not survive for another 350 years.

Job title:
Partnerships & Community Engagement Officer

What does your role involve?
I’m responsible for delivering the project’s activity plan. It’s a very varied role that involves recruiting and supporting volunteers and placement students, promoting the project to local communities and coordinating events and activities.

What is your background?
I worked with volunteers and conservation trainees at London Wildlife Trust for 11 years and prior to that worked as a Community Tutor teaching English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL).

What excites you about your role?
I love being outdoors and going out into communities, meeting different people. I’m most excited about the project’s biodiversity enhancements and discovering the park’s social history – the lives of ordinary and extraordinary people connected to the park and how this links with the present day.

What do you think will be the biggest challenge?
Londoners are busy people so building a team of committed volunteers to help deliver the project – mobility buggy drivers, guided walks leaders, butterfly surveyors and history researchers will all play a vital role.

Job title:
Project Support Officer

What does your role involve?
Providing project administrative and organisational support for the delivery of the Greenwich Park Revealed Project.

What is your background?
My background is in cultural heritage and project management. Before joining The Royal Parks, I spent three years at the British Museum, supporting heritage and archaeological training projects in Sudan, Egypt and Iraq. I have a master’s degree in Cultural Heritage Studies and a BA in Spanish and History of Art.

What excites you about your role?
I am excited to work with a wide range of people, both within and outside The Royal Parks, and to help engage new communities with Greenwich Park by supporting the project’s delivery. I am interested in learning more about the Park’s heritage and helping the project to communicate its stories to new audiences. I can’t wait to see the transformations that the project will bring.

What do you think will be the biggest challenge?
As I’ll be new to The Royal Parks, my biggest challenge will be to learn how it operates as an organisation as I’ll work with colleagues from different departments and disciplines. I look forward to the challenge!

Job title:
Community Archaeologist for the Greenwich Park Revealed project

What does your role involve?
Being the first in-house archaeologist for The Royal Parks! I will develop and deliver community archaeology activities for the Greenwich Park Revealed project, working with the public, schools, volunteers, specialists and contractors, to uncover some of the park’s archaeological secrets.

What is your background?
I’ve worked as a community archaeologist for Kent County Council for more than ten years. We’ve run a series of fun and engaging projects in Kent at country parks, on commons and across Romney Marsh with local schools and even in collaboration with Leicester University, looking for evidence of Caesar’s landing place!

What excites you about your role?
Although digs have taken place in the park before, this will be the first project to look at the archaeology as a whole. There are an amazing collection of sites present, from Roman buildings to Anglo-Saxon burials, huge 17^th landscape features, to buried World War Two archaeology. I love the breadth of archaeology present and the opportunity to explore this historic landscape further.

What do you think will be the biggest challenge?
Making the most of the three years we have to run projects. This is a unique opportunity!

Job title:
Technical Officer

What does your role involve?
I manage the Apprenticeship Scheme across the parks and work closely with Greenwich Parks Maintenance contractors in the day to day running of Greenwich Park.

What is your background?
I have worked in The Royal Parks for 10 years, starting as a seasonal gardener at St James’s Park and Hyde Park before being accepted onto The Royal Parks horticultural apprenticeship scheme. I continued to work as a horticultural team leader in Hyde Park before being given the opportunity to be trained by and a part of the Royal Parks management team in Greenwich Park in 2018.

What excites you about your role?
The creation of opportunities for people to connect with the park and its rich history through volunteering, apprenticeships and work placements is exciting along with the landscape and biodiversity enhancements that improve these opportunities.

What do you think will be the biggest challenge?
Ensuring the project sets the park up for the future. The increase in visitor numbers and the way the park is used has changed dramatically over the years. These pressures would take a toll on the park, its historic features and its biodiversity if nothing was done.

What’s your first task?
I joined in 2018 and my first task was to facilitate University of Greenwich students in setting up a mini-air quality station to record air quality inside and compare it to outside the park. It’s a long time since Charles Dickens used the description but the parks are still the “Lungs of London”.

Job title:
Head of Landscape

What does your role involve?
I lead the Landscape Team to design and deliver landscape projects across all the Royal Parks. I develop strategies such as our park management and operations plans, tree strategies and area masterplans and lead our horticultural apprentice scheme.

What is your background?
I have spent the last 5 years developing the Greenwich Park Revealed project. I’m a landscape architect and project manager with a wide-ranging career including a decade working in environmental and social justice in Latin America. I’m a chartered landscape architect, have a masters degree in environmental management and a BA in Geography.

What excites you about your role?
To welcome a new team and starting work to deliver this awesome project! This is really big news in the landscape world and I can’t wait to recreate Le Notre’s vision. Ensuring the park will be here for another 500 years, improving facilities, creating habitats and welcoming new and diverse audiences is equally important.

What do you think will be the biggest challenge?
Developing good communication and teamwork with all the challenges the pandemic may throw at us. The scale and scope of the project is a challenge: making sure it delivers benefits for people and communities alongside the physical transformation. I hope that the huge amount we learn will be shared with colleagues and the wider landscape profession.

Job title: 
Landscape Project Manager

What does your role involve? 
I’m responsible for the landscape project management of the delivery of the landscape elements of Greenwich Park Revealed. This includes contract management, making sure we follow the industry regulations - called ‘CDM’, monitoring progress and ensuring the project is sustainable long-term.

What is your background?
I’m a Chartered Landscape Architect having previously worked in private practice in London and Kent. I’ve extensive on-site experience, notably acting as a Landscape Supervisor during the legacy transformation of the Olympic Park.

What excites you about your role?
The opportunity to be part of this amazing landscape-led project, from reinstating the Grand Ascent and re-commissioning the Victorian drinking fountains to utilising ground water to irrigate new trees. I am also very interested in addressing the emerging threats and effects of arboricultural diseases to the historic tree avenues.

What do you think will be the biggest challenge?
Greenwich Park is a much-loved and well used park by the local community. Managing the landscape works to limit disruption as much as possible will be a priority. I’m looking forward to talking about the project with the local community, as the project progresses.

Job title:
Landscape Architect

What does your role involve?
I’ll be developing the landscape designs across the project ensuring the design, materials and planting specified are suitable for a World Heritage Site, and come within the scope of the project. We’ll work with internal teams and consultants to ensure everything runs smoothly and to schedule – including the ecology team, the arboriculture team, structural engineers, architects, and many others. Once the plans are finalised we’ll run construction tenders and co-ordinate the construction of landscape design elements on-site.

What is your background?
I’ve a Masters in Landscape Architecture and have been working for seven years in this field. I previously worked in visual film effects and graphic design.

What excites you about your role?
Greenwich Park was designed by André Le Nôtre – the same man responsible for designing the  gardens of Versailles. We’ll not only ensure that his legacy is maintained, but we’ll highlight many other incredible (and possibly little known) landscape design features from throughout the centuries. I’m not overstating it when I say that this project has everything – it’s a Landscape Architect’s dream!

What do you think will be the biggest challenge?
Working out the best ways to celebrate historic design features. The Grand Ascent plans present many challenges for us to solve but knowing how great it is going to be when it’s finished makes it worth it.

Job Title:
Graduate Landscape Architect

What does your role involve?
Providing assistance in delivering the projects programme, working with the wider student landscape architect community. Providing technical drawings and documenting key information on habitat enhancement within Greenwich Park.

What is your background?
I started at The Regent’s Park on The Royal Parks’ apprenticeship scheme. I worked on planting schemes, especially around the waterfalls within Queen Mary Gardens. After completion of my Level 2-3 NVQ horticultural qualifications, I went on to graduate at Writtle University College in Landscape Architecture and this year I’ll have completed my Masters in Landscape Architecture.

What excites you about your role?
Starting to combine my educational experience and prior hands-on experience as a working horticulturalist, while working on fantastic landscape projects.

What do you think will be the biggest challenge?
Adapting to a new working experience in a studio/office and understanding the procedures of the day-to-day working pattern of a Landscape Architecture.