The man with a big idea

Celebrating the 46th Anniversary of the Brent River Park

Luke FitzHerbert at the Brent River Park Inauguration ceremony, June 29th 1975. Photo by Colin Miell

It’s been 46 years since the inauguration of the Brent River Park (BRP), which took place on 29th June 1975. We’re extremely lucky, in this part of West London, to have this string of connected parks and green spaces following the course of the River Brent, to freely wander and enjoy. During lockdown, many people said that the parks were a lifeline. The multitude of benefits the BRP provides for our mental and physical health, and the deeper connections felt with nature and wildlife, helped support local residents through this dark period. A lot of people who had lived nearby for years discovered parts of the BRP for the first time.

This vast swathe of open space feels like the bit that got left behind when the rest of the area was built up. Few of us stop to think about how it came to be here. In fact, the park isn’t as timeless as it might seem. Its creation is relatively recent. It is here because of a big idea and some dedicated people who campaigned for it in the 1970s.

There’s a period in which events are often forgotten, as they fade into that grey area between news and history. As Alan Bennett said, “There is no period so remote as the recent past.” Yet, as the world faces the threat of a Climate Emergency, the story of the Brent River Park is more important than ever.

In the 1970s, many of the open spaces along the Brent were not well cared for. Some were regarded as ‘wasteland’ and were not accessible to the public. It wasn’t possible to walk between the pieces of land. There was no clear plan for what to do with them and there were even suggestions that some of them should be developed. One such plan was for a marina with a restaurant and car park on Trumpers Field, which was given planning permission by Ealing Council in 1976. Thankfully, that never became a reality.

The idea of stringing these green spaces together into a large, multi-habitat, single park was the vision of one man, Luke FitzHerbert, a former Irish Guardsman, a lover of the outdoors and a history teacher at Brentside High School. He gathered a group of like-minded people and formed the Brent River & Canal Society, a charity which had its first meeting on 9 May 1973.

The current map of the Brent River Park, also known as “The Lungs of London” .

At first, the BRP campaign encountered some resistance from Ealing Council, although some individual officers and councillors supported the idea. Former planning officer John Templeton recalls an early meeting with Luke FitzHerbert:

“As soon as I read in the local paper about his idea for a linear park, I phoned him up and he said “Come and have a chat this evening”. We spent till after midnight discussing how to get the councillors to endorse his idea without it being scuppered by the council. “We’re not having the public telling us how to look after our land”, one of the senior officers said.”

The answer, they decided, was to appeal directly to the councillors:

“We decided Luke would lobby all the councillors with his brilliant idea and to bypass the council officers. He hired a coach and took them up and down the valley and they were all given tea in the garden of Dorothy Tyler at The Hermitage (the thatched cottage in Church Road Hanwell). About a couple of months later my boss, the chief planning officer, who must have been spoken to by the chairman of the planning committee, asked me to contact Mr FitzHerbert to discuss the council working with this society! I never knew whether he was aware we were already doing so!”

Eventually the council approved the plan and the Brent River Park was formally inaugurated on 29 June 1975. It took some time for all the pieces of land to be added and the park didn’t reach its final extent until 1985. The BRP earned its title as ‘The Lungs of London’.

Tragically, Luke FitzHerbert was killed in a car crash in 2007. His two obituaries in the Guardian and the many tributes showed the esteem in which he was held. He was a man with big ideas and an even bigger heart. His charity lives on. Today, the Brent River & Canal Society (BRCS) is still keeping a watchful eye on the park and opposing proposals to encroach onto it, such as the recent unsuccessful attempt at Gurnell. The BRCS is also campaigning for Local Nature Reserve (LNR) designation for Warren Farm and its surrounding BRP meadows. The Warren Farm Nature Reserve campaign has attracted some high-profile support and has over 10,500 signatures on its petition to date. The campaign is being led by Katie Boyles, the BRCS’s newest trustee, who wasn’t born when the BRP was formed. As she says, the early pioneers still provide the inspiration for this project:

“We owe it to people like Luke FitzHerbert, our big thinkers and early campaigners, to carry on and build on their work. Without people like Luke, we wouldn’t have the Brent River Park. It’s sadly all too easy to be complacent when it comes to our green spaces. There is an expectation that someone else is looking out for them or that they don’t need to be protected, that they just exist and will continue to always be there. That’s certainly how I once thought. But we know parts of the BRP are under serious threat and we want them to have the extra protection that LNR status will give. The Warren Farm Nature Reserve campaign has been inspired by young conservationist Kabir Kaul and brought to life by naturalist and BRCS Trustee Phil Belman. It’s another big idea that the council have the power to make happen today. It is our duty to preserve the BRP for the future, just as they did four decades ago. I like to think that Luke FitzHerbert would approve of our campaign and be right behind us!”

And so, 46 years on, the baton passes to the next generation, and the next... The charity Luke FitzHerbert founded is still campaigning and is as committed as ever to helping the people of Ealing and West London preserve this unique and wonderful corridor of parks. With younger supporters coming through too, there is every reason to believe that the Brent River Park and the Brent River & Canal Society will still be here another 46 years from now. Our green spaces need as many supporters as possible.

Revisiting Warren Farm NR today

The last word goes to David Blackwell, long-standing BRCS Trustee and Local Historian:

“Luke’s aspirations for setting up the Brent River Park in the early 1970s have been so good for the local residents of Southall, Hanwell and Ealing, especially with the Covid pandemic taking hold. Protecting the Brent River Park for future generations should be encouraged. We thank the council for working closely with us in the past and we’re pleased that they are again working with us now to hopefully carry on the good work. Let’s continue to write a history that future generations will look back on and thank us for.”

Written by Steven Toft, Warren Farm Nature Reserve group, campaign organiser

This piece is the opener to a series of articles and videos we will be doing on the history of the Brent River Park and the people who made it happen. Please watch this space for more news and updates. In the meantime, please sign the petition and follow us on social media, let’s safeguard our loved green spaces together.

Thank you.

Brent River & Canal Society website

Please also read Kabir Kaul’s blogpost ‘Evening walk around Warren Farm’ (It’s a really wonderful and heartfelt piece of writing. Imagine a world where everyone experienced and cared so deeply for wildlife. Let’s make it happen!)

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Facebook: Warren Farm Nature Reserve Group

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