The Livinggreen Heart of the Park visitor centre is officially open!

The Livinggreen Heart of the Park visitor centre was officially opened on 3 November by Fiona Reynolds, Director General of the National Trust. This was the culmination of two years of hard work by the project team, staff at Morden Hall Park and numerous partners, contractors, funders and volunteers - a huge thank you goes to all those who have been involved!

National Trust Director General Fiona Reynolds cuts the ribbon, accompanied by (from left to right) chair of the Heritage Lottery Fund London Committee, Wesley Kerr, Deputy Mayor of Merton, Cllr Chris Edge, Merton Council Leader Cllr Stephen Alambritis, Livinggreen lead partner, Huib Haccou and Morden Hall Park Property Manager Zoë Colbeck. Credit: Professional Images

Our European partners in the Livinggreen Project also joined us at the launch, from France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany, so they will be going back to tell others in their country about our project and to share learning from it as they develop their own eco-renovation projects.

Zoë Colbeck, Caroline Pankhurst and Zoë Adams from the project team with Livinggreen Project partners. Credit: Professional Images

On Saturday 5th November we welcomed our first public visitors to see the renovated stable yard, experience the new exhibitions, visit the cafe and craft stalls, and learn about the project. They were also entertained by local musicians, clog dancers and morris dancers. We were delighted to see over 1400 visitors over the weekend.

Visitors are entertained by the Colliers Wood ukelele band. NPTL/Caroline Pankhurst

There are two exhibitions to enjoy. The main exhibition space tells the story of the renovation project and explains the range of energy saving insulations, recycled materials and green technologies which have been used to make the stable yard the most energy efficient and eco-friendly historic building in the country. There is also a smaller, temporary exhibition area which is currently telling the story of the Film Star parties which were held at Morden Hall Park between 1947 and 1951.

A young visitor learns how solar panels work. NPTL/Caroline Pankhurst

The Livinggreen Heart of the Park Centre is now open Monday to Friday 11am - 3pm and between 11am and 4pm on Saturdays and Sundays. Please come and see us; we hope you will be inspired by the project and enjoy the surrounding park and gardens.

For more information about the project, please visit the National Trust Website.

Our address is:

Morden Hall Park
Morden Hall Road
London SM4 5JD

Click here for information about travel options - we are very close to tube, tram and bus, and a Sustrans cycle route runs through the park.

Getting ready for the big opening

Here at Morden Hall Park we can hardly believe it - opening week has finally arrived! It's amazing how quickly everything has come together over the last week. We've been busy putting the finishing touches to the new visitor centre and today we managed to get some photos of the finished product. Now, I'm not going to spoil it by posting a blog full of pictures - you're going to have to come along on Saturday to see the end result for yourselves, but here's a sneak preview...

The courtyard has been swept and is ready for our first customers on Saturday. We'll be opening the stable yard from 11am - 4pm, and there'll be plenty to see and do.


Chris, our Warden, worked hard this morning to get our log burning stove up and running. We're pleased to say that it works - so does the chimney!

The exhibition area looks stunning, and dividing the space between our permanent and temporary exhibition areas are these beautiful batiq hangings made specially for us by Cricket Green School.
Yann (our head chef) and Jo (our catering manager) have been settling into the new cafe area today - I can confirm that the cakes are delicious!

So...
...375 days since the builders arrived on site...
...324 solar slates...
...74 hard hat tours...
...27 project volunteers...
...22 photo voltaic thermal solar panels...
...12 photo voltaic solar panels...
...2 waterwheels (one real, one model)...
...1 air source heat pump...
...1 wood burning stove...
and one tired, but very happy, project team!

Flushed with success!

Buried beneath the stable yard floor are four giant rainwater harvesting tanks, each one collecting up to 3000 litres of rain water which is then used to flush some of the toilets.

The bathroom fittings in the stable yard will also demonstrate the principles of re-use, reduce and recycle.

Re-use:

One of the toilets is fitted with a hand basin in the cistern lid. Water collected during hand-washing is fed into the cistern and contributes to the water used during the next flush! This is a novel way of using "greywater".

Cistern lid incorporating a hand basin - NPTL/Jon Whitehead

Reduce:

The urinals in the mens' toilets don't actually use any water at all. They are fitted with a special filter which eliminates odours and only requires periodic maintenance.

Both types of toilet help to make the water that is collected in the rainwater tanks go further, as rainwater is only used to flush the other toilets.

Waterless urinal - NPTL/Jon Whitehead

Recycle:

The countertops in the bathrooms (and the new cafe) will incorporate recycled glass. Staff and volunteers at Morden Hall Park have been bringing in waste glass bottles and jars. We have also collected waste glass from our cafe. The glass is returned to a company who then use it as part of their countertop manufacturing process. You can see the fragments of glass in the material, and visitors might even be able to work out what kind of item they originally came from.

Countertop incorporating recycled glass - NPTL/Jon Whitehead

The stable yard opens on 5th November - come and try out one of the toilets!

Nearly there!

The big count down begins! With less than three weeks until our grand opening, it's all hands on deck as the finishing touches are added to the building. The fencing has finally been removed from the front of the stable yard and we've waved goodbye to our site manager Alf.

NTPL/Jon Whitehead

As you can see from our picture, the exhibition area is ready for the exhibition installation next week and has been painted a lovely Farrow & Ball shade - Saxon Green. The space suddenly feels a lot bigger now that the workmen have moved out and we can begin to imagine visitors coming through the doors.

NTPL/Jon Whitehead

The old stalls are also looking really lovely now that their restoration is complete.

After a year-long renovation, the stable yard visitor centre will finally open to the public on Saturday 5th November. From 11am - 4pm we'll be running an array of tours, children's activities and musical entertainment to welcome our visitors and celebrate the opening. We look forward to seeing you there!

Livinggreen living green roofs

The stable yard renovation is almost complete! In the meantime, we've been busy planning our new cycle shed, which will have a living green roof.

We've already talked about how we've been increasing the green space at the project, by turfing out the tarmac and putting grass in its place. A living green roof will add to this. As our cities get hotter, due to climate change, green roofs will become increasingly important - not only do they help keep buildings cool, but they also provide an important habitat for wildlife and so help to increase biodiversity. And they can also be beautiful, such as this one at the Abbey Hive Community Centre in North London:

Living roof at Abbey Hive Community Centre, NTPL/Caroline Pankhurst

To find out more about living green roofs, see http://www.livingroofs.org/ or go to RESET's conference, "Ecosystem Services Come to Town", next Tuesday 18th October: www.reset-development.org/conference-2011. Dusty Gedge, President of the European Federation of Green Roof Associations, will be among the speakers, and the conference takes place at the Museum of London, which has a variety of living roofs.

Here at the HOP Project, we're hoping to hold a workshop when we build our green roof, with some of the green roof experts, so watch this space for details.

And from green roofs to no roofs....We've also been down at the beautiful ruins of Nymans, the National Trust property down in Sussex, promoting our project at their solar-powered Green Fair. It was good to talk to people from further afield about what's happening in our stable yard - we're hoping that lots of them come to visit after we open on 5th November.

Turf out the tarmac!

A few weeks ago we told you that the area outside Morden Cottage had been re-landscaped to restore the original turning-circle. The area has been seeded with grass and now makes a pleasant, green addition to the view.

We are now creating another new area of grass by removing the path adjacent to the access road (near the secondhand bookshop), as shown in the photo.

The path by the bookshop is removed, NTPL/Jon Whitehead

When the landscaping work for the Heart of the Park project has been completed, there will be an overall reduction of 46 square meters of hard standing.

This is beneficial in several ways: not only does grass look nicer than tarmac and offer a better environment for wildlife, but it also plays an important part in reducing the flood risk in this area adjacent to the river Wandle. Grassy areas absorb rain rather than causing the water run-off associated with paved or tarmac surfaces and, in the event of a flood, assist the water to soak away.

Meanwhile, to the rear of the stable yard, the area is being cleared and landscaped to create another path to the site, as well as a new cycle shed (with living green roof!) and a new outdoor area where visitors will be able to enjoy refreshments from the stable yard café.

The landscape around the air source heat pump is cleared, NTPL/Caroline Pankhurst

In addition, when the work is complete, and the builders’ cabins are removed, local “Merton” varieties of apple and pear trees will be planted. The purchase of the trees has been kindly funded by Copella, the apple juice company.

Getting plastered!

Most of the interior walls of the stable yard buildings have now been finished with two layers of lime plaster - a base coat and a finish coat.

Bags of lime plaster NPTL/Jon Whitehead

The production and use of lime plaster dates back hundreds of years. The dry mix consists of slaked lime (calcium hydroxide) and sand, or other fillers. After water is added, the plaster is applied to the walls. Lime plaster has several advantages over cement-based mortars. Less carbon dioxide is generated during its manufacture and it also absorbs carbon dioxide during the curing process. It is relatively flexible, which is useful in older buildings where the walls may adjust their shape over time.

A base coat of lime plaster has been applied to the wall on the left NPTL/Jon Whitehead

In other HOP Project news, the renovation of the waterwheel in the River Wandle has been completed and you can now see what it looked like when it powered one of the two snuff mills at Morden Hall Park.

Exciting times for the Wandle, which has just been named one of the 10 most improved rivers in England and Wales.

The renovated waterwheel NPTL/Jon Whitehead