Dedicating a bench in the Royal Parks
Dedicating a bench is a wonderful way to remember a loved one or celebrate a special occasion while supporting The Royal Parks charity.
Personalising your bench
A limited number of benches become available for dedication across the Royal Parks each year. You will be able to select a location for your bench from those available in your chosen park and create a unique inscription for your bench, which will be engraved on a plaque. Our friendly team will meet you in person to discuss your dedication, show you the locations we have available and support you throughout the dedication process.
How your bench helps take care of the parks
Your dedication will help protect your park and free access to nature in our city. Your generosity could support the playgrounds, ponds, gardens and quiet corners where you and your loved ones have made precious memories, as well as the wildlife, plants and trees that call your park home.
Available locations
Please click the buttons below to find out more about the locations we have available and the contribution we request to dedicate a bench in each location.
We request a contribution of £7,500 to dedicate a bench in Brompton Cemetery.
We request a contribution of £5,000 to dedicate a backless bench or £7,500 to dedicate a traditional bench in Bushy Park.
We have locations available for traditional benches within the Woodland Gardens and for backless benches in the wider parkland.
We request a contribution of £10,000 to dedicate a bench in The Green Park.
We request a contribution of £5,000 to dedicate a backless bench in Greenwich Park.
There is currently a special opportunity to dedicate benches at the heart of Greenwich Park, next to the park’s world-famous and protected view of London. We are inviting contributions of £15,000 to dedicate a bench at the viewpoint, with funds contributing to the charity’s Greenwich Park Revealed project.
We request a contribution of £10,000 to dedicate a bench in Hyde Park.
We have locations available either in the Rose Garden or along West Carriage Drive.
We request £7,500 to dedicate a bench in Richmond Park.
We have locations available in Pembroke Lodge Gardens or Isabella Plantation.
We request a contribution of £10,000 to dedicate a bench in Kensington Gardens.
We have locations available along the South Flower Walk or the Mulberry Walk.
We request a contribution of £10,000 to dedicate a bench in St. James’s Park.
We have locations available along the northwest edge of the lake.
We request a contribution of £10,000 to dedicate a bench in The Regent’s Park.
We have locations available within Queen’s Mary’s Gardens.
If you would like to dedicate a bench in one of the locations listed here, we would love to hear from you. Please get in touch using the form below, email dedications@royalparks.org.uk or call 0300 061 2160.
FAQs
We have limited space across the parks we manage, which are listed landscapes. We only install a small number of benches annually and often only where existing benches need to be replaced. If the park or area where you would like to dedicate a bench is not listed, please check this page again, as we will update it as soon as new locations become available.
Timeframes for completing dedications will vary, depending on our suppliers’ and contractors’ workloads at the time and the style of bench for your dedication. We can’t guarantee the installation of your bench by a given date, but your dedication period won’t begin until your bench has been installed.
All dedications last for ten years. At the end of the ten-year dedication period, you will usually have the opportunity to renew your dedication for a further ten years for an additional contribution, subject to park management plans.
Once you have chosen your bench and completed our bench dedication agreement, we will send you an invoice including instructions for making your contribution by bank transfer or cheque. More than one person can contribute part of the dedication amount, but unfortunately, we cannot offer payment plans or instalments.
Our park teams have selected particular styles of bench for different areas within each park to ensure that seating has a consistent appearance that complements the surrounding landscape. We can share a photograph of the style for your bench and will usually be able to show you an example of the same style of bench in the park.
Each park has its own styles of benches, from traditional park benches throughout the central parks, to more rustic and hardy benches in the more remote parts of Bushy and Richmond parks.
Your inscription can be up to 30 words in length and will be engraved on to a 6” x 2” brass plaque. We ask that inscriptions have a celebratory tone, and we welcome inscriptions that share what your loved one enjoyed or provide information about their connection with the park.
We request that inscriptions do not include dates or in-memoriam style phrases
We welcome text in foreign languages, providing there is an English translation on the same plaque.
We do not operate a tree dedication programme in any of the parks.
To protect the parks and their wildlife, floral tributes cannot be left in the parks. Flowers can introduce pests and diseases that can harm the parks’ plants and trees, while plastic wrap, ties and paper can harm the parks’ wildlife and their habitats.
It is not possible to scatter ashes within the parks. Sadly, ashes contain minerals in concentrations that can affect soil composition and harm the plants and trees that grow in the parks. This in turn can affect the wildlife that relies on the plants for food and shelter.