Going green

The 13-acre site of Fulham Palace that you see today is a remnant of a once extensive country estate on the banks of the River Thames, stretching from Chiswick in the west, to Chelsea in the east, and up to Willesden in the north. It was owned by the Bishops of London from 704 to 1974 and was his country house from the 14th century.

Over the past 17 years, the restoration of Fulham Palace has delivered within this green space a museum, café, shop, education centre, wedding & events venue, residential accommodation and commercial office space. The income we are able to generate from these sources enables the Trust to provide free access to the garden 365 days per annum.

In the garden, we have re-introduced plant varieties first grown at the Palace over 300 years ago (many for the first time in the UK and even Europe), established a range of volunteer roles including gardeners, beekeepers and green woodworkers, and re-planted the walled garden where we produce organically-grown fruit, flowers and vegetables for sale on our market barrow. Alongside this, our learning and engagement programme provides opportunities for involvement for a range of audiences and volunteers. The result is a freely accessible green lung in the heart of London, helping to tackle the nature deficit for people living in the city.

The Palace site has many important statutory designations such as scheduled monument status, Grade I & II listed buildings and a Grade II* listed garden. The Palace grounds are part of, alongside Bishop’s Park and All Saints Churchyard, a non-statutory Site of Importance for Nature Conservation (SINC) that is designated of ‘Borough Grade 1’ importance.

We cannot return the site to a past ecology due to the scale of the architectural and landscape interventions by previous Bishops of London over 1,300 years. Furthermore, we must now plan for a resilient future in the light of climate change.

Future plans for developing and supporting the site’s ecology will be based on available evidence and expert advice from London’s natural history community and urban ecology specialists. These must take account of the site’s various historic and landscape designations.

Fulham Palace Trust is committed to:

• introducing sustainable and environmentally sound horticultural practices;
• measuring the local climate at our weather station and informing our visitors about the changes we are seeing in our garden;
• encouraging and inspiring visitors, volunteers, staff and tenants to reduce their own pollution and carbon footprint;
• reflecting ecology and climate issues in our events programming;
• using green electricity and gas tariffs;
• using environmental and energy efficiency best practices when managing our estate, and when undertaking restoration and improvement. more planting schemes in its gardens which encourage biodiversity;
• carrying out sustainable and environmentally sound horticultural practices;
• measuring the local climate at our weather station and informing our visitors about the changes we are seeing in our garden;
• encouraging and inspiring visitors, volunteers, staff and tenants to reduce their own pollution and carbon footprint;
• reflecting ecology and climate issues in our events programming;
• using green electricity and gas tariffs;
• using environmental and energy efficiency best practices when managing our estate, and when undertaking restoration and improvement.

In 2025/26 we built on some of the initiatives from 2024/25, as follows:

• We replaced all the lights in the education centre for energy efficient LEDs.
• We introduced food waste recycling in the whole estate, including all our commercial tenants. This complements the existing composting programme.
• We have removed the use of paper towels for hand drying in as many facilities as possible.
• We have introduced a drinking water dispenser to allow visitors to refill their own water bottles rather than buying more plastic bottles.
• We moved to a green gas provider for heating the Palace.
• Our ‘going green’ project, funded by the Kusuma Trust and individual donors enabled us to install new propagation greenhouse in 2024 and convert one wing of the vinery for training and education sessions. Amongst other activities, the vinery is now regularly used by our green wood working volunteers. They make bird boxes and other items for sale to the public, and created a new chicken run for our chickens.
• Also installed in 2024, our pond in the walled garden enabled us to diversify the habitats on site. It is now home toplants and animals such as newts and dragonflies.
• We continued to undertake bee surveys on site with the help of the London Natural History Society.
• In March 2026 we hope to receive good news about a funding bid to replace the roof on the south side of the Tudor court.  As part of the project, we will make changes to rainwater goods such as gutters and downpipes and improve underground drainage so that we can be more resilience in the face of higher rainfall.

We call on our local community to look at how they can help, at home, and at Fulham Palace. Three small changes can make an impact in a positive way, we encourage you to choose from the suggestions below:

• Check with your local authority where you can recycle all waste, including batteries, clothes, electrical items etc. (More information for Wandsworth and Hammersmith & Fulham residents can be found online.)
• Start using refillable cleaning products – available from a wide range of suppliers.
• Save rainwater or ‘grey water’ from washing up to water your plants.
• Use a reusable cup for hot drinks when on the go (although at the Palace we will compost your cup!).
• Use cardboard egg boxes for sowing your own plug plants, then you can plant straight out with the egg box cell still intact and the cardboard will rot once replanted.
• Put a bug hotel up on a south-facing outside wall, fence or balcony to help beneficial insects such as ladybirds, lacewings and hoverflies through the winter
• If you have a lawn, allow a patch of grass to grow long and leave it uncut until the following June. This will help overwintering insects to remerge successfully.

This declaration follows a number of changes the Palace has made to green its working practices.

Already the Palace has undertaken the following work:

• We have undertaken plant, moth, butterfly and bird surveys to provide a baseline measuring the impact of the future changes we make.
• We have installed bird boxes and bird feeding areas.
• We now have a well-established volunteer programme in the garden consisting of about 70 garden, bee-keeping and green wood-working volunteers.
• We have planted over 120 fruit trees (apples, pears, peaches, almonds) in the walled garden since 2012 and planted over 100 species of plant in our Cultivating Compton beds in 2019, massively diversifying the range of plants on the site.
• We have planted an herbaceous border consisting of over 150 different types of plants.
• We have a succession of flowers throughout most of the year starting with early daffodils selected for their benefits to pollinators.
• We are growing fruit and vegetables in our walled garden according to organic principles, for sale on our market barrow, contributing to local health and wellbeing.
• We use biological controls to control pests in the vinery and orchard.
• We have installed a water collecting tank which we use to water plants in the walled garden.
• We have built a composting area where we are able to produce leaf mould as well as garden compost and mulch for our planting areas.
• We use brushwood to stake our perennial plants using sustainable coppices of hazel on the site.
• We make homemade wigwam structures and leave them up over winter as we have found them to be hibernating habitats for ladybirds and other beneficial insects.
• We consider soil health and leave herbaceous plants uncut for as long as possible through the winter to prevent soil compaction and which also act as a winter food resource for birds.
• We have built a wildlife pond to attract and support amphibians, insects and birds. We have planted the pond with 40 species encouraging further biodiversity. We have two small half barrel ponds which provide further opportunities for water habitats.
• We have reduced mowing in areas of the Palace where a tightly cropped lawn is not necessary, and have developed a mowing plan to try to maintain and a variety of grass habitats and different lengths, plus leaving up to ¼ of all long
• grass areas uncut to allow insects and invertebrates to overwinter.
• We have created special Palace mixes of grassland plants that fit the history of the Palace with the aim of creating resilience against future climate change.
• We have changed light bulbs in the buildings over to LED lights wherever possible and installed installation in our roof spaces in our recent restoration project.
• We make sure that all takeaway cups, plates and cutlery in the café are biodegradable and are now composted by the garden team alongside coffee grounds, fruit and vegetable waste from the café.
• The weddings and functions menu now includes a ‘no waste’ option.
• We are collecting the chicken manure from our Pekin bantam chickens and will use it as plant feed for the box hedge in the knot garden.
• We have been running an apple day community event for over 10 years, highlighting the traditional celebration of the harvest and focussing on our homegrown apples and honey.
• We are increasing the amount of proper segregation and recycling in all our office areas from paper, food waste, batteries and old equipment.
• We continue to recondition IT devices whenever possible rather than buying new, cutting down on WEE waste, the use of rare raw materials necessary for most IT devices and contributing to the circular economy ethos.
• We have refurbished one of our cottages, Timber Lodge, and the dwelling is now powered by solar panels and heated by an air source heat pump. A highly efficient gas boiler has been installed in Coachman’ Lodge meaning that the dwelling is also more energy efficient compared to before.

Going forward we are making the following commitments:

• To continue to hold an annual fair to mark Earth Day, the Go green fest (this year’s event will take place on 3 May) This year’s theme is ‘do it yourself’. From growing your own food and making simple eco-friendly crafts to learning how nature thrives in our garden, the Go green fest is all about encouraging small everyday actions and inspiring big ideas for the future.
• To continue to develop our apple day message of seasonality and food miles.
• We will pursue our action plan for long-term habitat management. This will include supporting natural regeneration and, where suitable, planting environmentally resilient and ecologically suitable plantings as well as other measures to support biodiversity.
• We will continue to monitor developments in the garden machinery market and introduce battery-powered equipment as it becomes proven technology.
• We will continue to put up more bird boxes and bat boxes.
• We will produce a long-term tree planting and natural regeneration plan to ensure that we have different age cohorts of trees and that we are managing our tree stock with the long-term aim of supporting biodiversity and that fits the history of the Palace.
• We will support trees in crisis such as ash and elm, allowing them to grow in the hope that some will have resistance to disease, and if they die we will use their trunks for log piles and create greater habitat diversity.
• We will engage a wider range of visitors and community groups to access the Palace and the work we are doing in the areas of biodiversity and climate change through workshops and talks.
• We will investigate the longer-term possibility of re-introducing water into the moat which will provide opportunities for other water habitats in addition to the pond established in 2024.
• We will always consider green energy suppliers when renegotiating our energy contracts as well as considering green energy systems such as air source heat pumps and solar panels when refurbishing or building on site, subject to planning and scheduled ancient monument restrictions.
• We will roll our Carbon Literacy training to our staff.
• We will further improve the procurement of green cleaning products, consumables and equipment.
• We will continue to increase our recycling rate.

Learn more and read the full 2025/26 biodiversity & climate change resilience policy. 

Discover our latest survey findings

• botany survey with All Saint’s Fulham
• butterfly survey
• moth survey
• bird survey