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watthen Queen Elizabeth II Gardens The first people to visit the Royal Park’s £5m biodiversity scheme, which opens in Regent’s Park this month, will soon discover that they are not, in fact, the first visitors.
That honor goes to a hairy-footed bee, a pair of breeding geese, some dragonfly nymphs, a flock of gray wagtails, a flock of hedgehogs, a swarm of newts, a flock of fluttering spring butterflies and a “very cheeky” fox.
The Royal Parks transformed a pristine brownfield site, historically used as a horticultural nursery, into an 8,000 square meter (two-acre) haven for flora and fauna, increasing the biodiversity of the wildlife habitat by an estimated 184%.
The greenhouse, loose gravel and concrete have been replaced with more than 40 new trees, approximately 2,000 square meters of wildflower meadow, over 5,000 square meters of climate-resilient planting and an additional 100 meters of native mixed hedges.
A large ornamental pond composed of naturally filtered water provides new aquatic habitats for plants, insects and amphibians, while a former water storage tower offers visitors panoramic views of the garden, integrating rapid nesting and bat roosting boxes on its new roof.
Matthew Halsall, the project’s manager and landscape architect, said that since the gardens were completed in January, a variety of wildlife had been spotted in the newly created habitats, including foxes that visited almost every day.
“He’s very cheeky – he likes to chew on the guide rope, which is a bit inconvenient – but he’s a very welcome visitor,” he said.
Bees and butterflies thrive among the 200,000 spring bulbs planted in the garden, and the park’s long-term resident hedgehogs – the last breeding population in the Midlands London – Documented exploration of the site.
When Halsall began designing the garden three years ago, he realized the site had the potential to become a haven for London’s biodiversity. “It’s in the heart of Regent’s Park and surrounded by many different habitat types, so it’s an important project in terms of wildlife habitat reclamation.”
But as well as increasing biodiversity, Halsall was also responsible for creating a “beautiful and evocative” public garden in memory of the late Queen. The result is a space that invites visitors to observe and engage with a variety of wildlife habitats as they move from gorgeous, formally designed landscaping to meadows planted with wildflowers.
“We call it a micromosaic of habitats because there are so many different features in this relatively small two-acre garden,” he said.
Interconnected channels or swales ensure that rainwater flows slowly through the garden, reducing the need for irrigation and creating a very wet habitat in winter, which then becomes partially dry in summer.
“This is really good because it allows you to introduce plants that are specifically suited to this environment,” Halsall said.
One of the biggest challenges was ensuring that the new gardens did not eliminate existing wildlife habitat on the site. A survey found broad-nosed weevils, various rare spiders, brown tree ants, small black wasps and mullein caterpillars inhabiting the loose gravel surrounding the greenhouse, so Halsall and his team decided to incorporate a loose gravel surface into the design.
Non-native trees with significant climate resilience, such as Mediterranean stone pine, are planted to protect habitats supported by native species such as British Scots pine, which are threatened by global warming in the UK.
Elm trees resistant to Dutch elm disease have also been introduced. “Elms support tussock moths and white-striped butterflies, which are amazing food sources for birds,” Halsall said.
To attract swifts to nest in the water tower, the water tower was converted from ironwork and decorated with roses, thistles, shamrocks and leeks (the plants of the four countries were embroidered on Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation dress), and speakers were installed to emit the birds’ calls. “We also think the tower has high roosting potential for bats,” he said.
eight different species of bats Live in eight Royal Parks across London, including the pipistrelle species, which is listed as “near threatened” British Red List. Charlotte Cass, the Royal Parks’ biodiversity manager, is working to encourage the bats to move around the city’s green spaces to ensure breeding populations are not isolated in one place, like the hedgehogs in Regent’s Park.
“We are building bat boxes and creating large numbers of roosts where we think bat roosts are viable, such as on specific trees in Hyde Park and Kensington. garden,” she said.
The Royal Parks has an eight-strong biodiversity team of ecologists, research officers and project managers, made possible in part by funding from the People’s Postcode Lottery. Volunteer Conservation and Ecology Officers also organized more than 3,000 volunteers to support the park’s biodiversity programs and conservation efforts.
Last year, volunteers helped plant 900 blackthorn saplings in sunny areas near the ash trees in Regent’s Park, creating an ideal habitat for the brown hairy butterfly. One of the rarest butterflies in the UK, the brown hairy butterfly feeds on aphid honeydew on ash trees.
“We found these butterflies in Regent’s Park that would just lay their eggs on the edges of the tips of blackthorn tree branches,” Cass said.
This year volunteers planted 4,500 plants of the weather-resistant sphagnum moss in three 100-square-metre sites in Richmond Park, after a survey revealed that this important species, which is rare in London and the south-east, was disappearing from the 800-year-old site.
“We almost lost it, with only 0.08 square meters left in the park. All it takes is one person to disturb it, or a dog to dig it up, and we lose it completely,” Kass said.
She hopes efforts to monitor and increase biodiversity in the capital’s 5,000-acre royal park will help create more resilient habitats for the wildlife that live there. “We have a very unique opportunity as a huge green space in an urban environment where we can play a vital role in protecting London’s biodiversity,” she said.
this Queen Elizabeth II Gardens Will be open to the public from April 27, 2026
