Letting the Light In

With so many people in our city lacking access to green space, we’re proud of how Chiswick House and Gardens provides access to nature, for everyone, every day of the year. But this relationship is a two-way one: it’s vital we protect and cherish the beautiful trees, plants and wildlife we have in our gardens. Doing this can sometimes mean taking bold action – and that’s why we’re excited to launch Letting the Light In, an ambitious new project designed to revitalise the Chiswick House woodlands.

Generously funded by Rewild London, supported by the Mayor of London in partnership with the London Wildlife Trust, Letting the light in is designed to boost biodiversity, protect trees, and better support the native birds, insects and mammals that live in the CHGT grounds and local area.

The 65-acre gardens at Chiswick House are home to two wooded areas, lovingly looked after by our gardeners and volunteers, who regularly undertake small-scale maintenance work like coppicing, felling small trees and removing scrub.

Right now, however, these areas are overgrown and unbalanced, with invasive species like Holly, Cherry Laurel and Rhododendron overshadowing other plant life, limiting sunlight, impacting the health of mature trees and reducing habitat variety. To tackle this, the Letting the Light In project focuses on a large-scale programme of work, clearing several overgrown areas and reintroducing light and space to the areas that need it most.

Why this work is needed

Life thrives on diversity, and to support a full and thriving population of mammal, bird, insect, fungi and plant life, an environment must have a range of habitats – and this is especially true of woodland.

Traditional mixed woodland, many thousands of years ago, would have naturally had this, thanks to the impact of native grazing mammals (we’re talking very distant past, so think bison and elephants!). These woods would have had thick and shaded layers on the woodland floor, mid-level habitat on the trunks of different species of trees, patches of foliage and dappled light created by trees of different heights and ages, and warmer, brighter areas nearer the tree crowns and canopy.

These days, however, active management is needed to ensure that the conditions that best support a wood’s natural diversity remain in place.

The Letting the light in project is therefore vital to sustaining the existing wildlife in the gardens, which includes hedgehogs, several bat species, a wide range of birds, butterflies and beetles, and more, as well as encouraging more species to make their home here.