Five years ago today on Monday 22nd July 2019, London became the world’s first National Park City!
It started with a question, as all great stories do – What if we thought of our cities as National Park Cities? A riot of colour, connection, culture and changemaking that heralded the launch of London as the world’s first National Park City.
Taking place over eight days in July 2019 the National Park City Festival marked an important milestone in the capital’s greening transition and brought together hundreds of members of the diverse communities it hoped to serve with an exciting programme of over 300 events celebrating London as a thriving green-blue metropolis.
London-wide, collaborative and long-term the Festival established a spirit of the London National Park City movement at its core five years on today.
That initial ‘What if’ question has led to thousands of Londoners responding with ‘Why not!’ and acting together to make their part of London better.
The National Park City designation is a new story to help people see and do the city differently – to create a city where people, places and nature are better connected. A city that offers so much potential to contribute positively to addressing the climate and biodiversity crisis via nature-based solutions and everyday actions in every neighbourhood.
making a commitment: the Charter
All movements are underpinned by a set of defining principles and the Charter for London National Park City is ours. Originally co-created with input from 50 cities around the globe, the Universal Charter was designed to hold the National Park City vision and take it into the future in a way that is both accessible and actionable.
The Charter for London National Park City, took the Universal Charter and reimagined it for London, to capture the unique qualities of the whole place, and the needs and ambitions of the whole community – highlighting areas of critical importance across biodiversity, conservation, environmental wellbeing, rewilding, greening, community and sustainability.
As well as capturing the collective ambition for the London National Park City movement, it also acts as a compass guiding the direction that London National Park City should take. To-date, signatories include Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan as well as representatives of over 300 organisations big and small including the National Trust, Crown Estate, City of London, Greater London Authority, and over half of London’s elected politicians. Each of whom have committed to collectively upholding and delivering against the ambition set out in the Charter.
Going and growing: the importance of grassroots
When the idea of London as a National Park City was first proposed in 2015 London architect and planner Sir Terry Farrell – the man behind iconic buildings such as the MI6 headquarters and Charing Cross Station in London – described it as “one vision to inspire a million projects”.
Today (22nd July 2024) marks the official fifth anniversary of London National Park City and this phrase is being lived out through the champions of our grassroots work, our community of 150 volunteer London National Park City Rangers who lead practical projects in neighbourhoods across London. Their projects are as varied as their expertise, and are driven by not only their personal and professional passion for the natural world, but by their role as stewards for London National Park movement.
looking back, looking ahead
We are incredibly grateful for the original vision sparked by Daniel Raven-Ellison, along with longstanding Trustees Alison Barnes and Tim Webb, and all of the Trustees, contributors and supporters who have helped initiate and guide the movement so far including, Paul de Zylva, Ben Smith, Judy Ling Wong, Emily Hamilton, Angela McDermott, Julian Tollast, Dr Steve Head, Edward Truch, and a special thanks to Steve Pocock who has done so much over the past few years.
Along with our current board led by Navdeep Deol, along with Emily, David, Eilish, Melissa, Lucy, Jo, Claire, and amazing staff team including Ed, Louis, Sadim, Miriam and Michael. And each of our 150 volunteer Rangers who inspire us every day in their work in neighbourhoods across London.
As we look to the year ahead we’ll be focused on expanding the capability of London National Park City to move as a movement. We’ll be sharing our map of volunteering locations in the next few weeks, updating our In Good Company partnership programme for businesses, extending the invite for more organisations and individuals to commit to supporting our Charter, and releasing our State of the National Park City report in the Autumn.
We’ll be extending the reach of our Rangers community to more neighbourhoods working with a handful of London Boroughs at a time, and supporting Local Nature Recovery in every community.
London is just at the beginning of its National Park City journey, so please join us by signing up to our community, popping along to see us at our first Visitors Centre at 109 Fleet Street, or sharing our story with someone close to you. Together we can make our city greener, healthier and wilder.
