Royal Parks Submits Application for Roehampton Gate Café
Proposal to replace temporary facilities in Richmond Park
A visualisation of what the new cafe could look like. Picture: David Morley Architects/The Royal Parks, Richmond
|
September 3, 2024
Public toilets and a popular café in Richmond Park could be replaced under plans to improve the facilities. The buildings and surrounding landscape near Roehampton Gate, a main entrance to the 2,500-acre park, are set for an upgrade as they are in poor condition.
The plans from Royal Parks, submitted to Richmond Council (24/1985/FUL), would see Roehampton Café, two toilet blocks and a bike hire facility on the site demolished and replaced with modern buildings. The current facilities are temporary structures installed in 2004 after a fire destroyed the original buildings.
The proposals were first published in March for consultation with the public prior to planning permission being sought.
Documents submitted with the application said: “All of these are of very poor quality and require replacing in the near future. Despite the poor quality of the existing facilities the site is still very popular and long queues form for both the catering operations and the public toilets, proving that there is a strong demand for facilities at this location.”
The new café would have indoor and outdoor seating, with enough space to cope with increased visitor numbers. The surrounding landscape would be improved with more trees and plants, while a new gate for pedestrians to get into the park from the Alton Estate, in Roehampton, would be added.
Roehampton Gate Car Park would also be improved under the plans, with its entrance moved to the north end to try and make it safer for pedestrians and cyclists. Two sections of the car park would be converted into disabled parking bays to increase the number of accessible bays from four to 14. The overall number of car parking spaces would be reduced from 245 to 225.
Application documents added, “It is proposed to replace the existing buildings with new, sustainable, modern facilities providing an enhanced visitor experience and at the same time making improvements to the road, car park and path layouts to improve safety, enhance the environment and increase the area of green space.”
Richmond Council will decide on the application in due course.
Charlotte Lilywhite - Local Democracy Reporter
Like Reading Articles Like This? Help Us Produce More This site remains committed to providing local community news and public interest journalism. Articles such as the one above are integral to what we do. We aim to feature as much as possible on local societies, charities based in the area, fundraising efforts by residents, community-based initiatives and even helping people find missing pets. We’ve always done that and won’t be changing, in fact we’d like to do more. However, the readership that these stories generates is often below that needed to cover the cost of producing them. Our financial resources are limited and the local media environment is intensely competitive so there is a constraint on what we can do. We are therefore asking our readers to consider offering financial support to these efforts. Any money given will help support community and public interest news and the expansion of our coverage in this area. A suggested monthly payment is £8 but we would be grateful for any amount for instance if you think this site offers the equivalent value of a subscription to a daily printed newspaper you may wish to consider £20 per month. If neither of these amounts is suitable for you then contact info@neighbournet.com and we can set up an alternative. All payments are made through a secure web site. One-off donations are also appreciated. Choose The Amount You Wish To Contribute. If you do support us in this way we’d be interested to hear what kind of articles you would like to see more of on the site – send your suggestions to the editor. For businesses we offer the chance to be a corporate sponsor of community content on the site. For £30 plus VAT per month you will be the designated sponsor of at least one article a month with your logo appearing if supplied. If there is a specific community group or initiative you’d like to support we can make sure your sponsorship is featured on related content for a one off payment of £50 plus VAT. All payments are made through a secure web site. |
