Driving sustainability goals to enhance London’s natural heritage with The Royal Parks 

The customer

The Royal Parks is a charity dedicated to caring for the most famous collection of urban parks in the world – Hyde Park, Kensington Gardens, St. James’s Park, The Green Park, The Regent’s Park & Primrose Hill, Greenwich Park, Richmond Park, and Bushy Park. It also manages other important open spaces in London, including Brompton Cemetery and Victoria Tower Gardens.

The charity provides free access to the capital’s beautiful, natural, and historic green spaces, to help improve everyone’s quality of life, health, and well-being, which is particularly important in a city environment.

It manages, protects, and improves 5000 acres of diverse parkland in an exemplary and sustainable manner so that everyone, now and in the future, has the opportunity to enjoy their natural and historic environments.

The background

OCS was selected following a competitive tender process, and the contract, which began on 1 October 2023, covers ‘hard’ facilities maintenance services across all eight Royal Parks and Brompton Cemetery. This includes services around water hygiene, helpdesk and CAFM services, planned maintenance, reactive maintenance, handyman services and project works.

The services OCS provides include skilled works to manage the parks’ infrastructure, including fountains, buildings (such as public toilets and offices), footpaths, statues, monuments, and street lighting. The estate contains around 600 different buildings and structures, 197 of which are listed assets, including the Albert Memorial in Kensington Gardens.

OCS will deliver planned preventative maintenance to protect and prevent the decline of park assets and infrastructure, as well as unplanned reactive repair work.

Delivering the best

Through the contract, The Royal Parks will seek for OCS to deliver the highest standards in service delivery, incorporating current industry standards and good practices, including around sustainability.

The Royal Parks is rightly proud of the work it delivers to protect and future-proof the capital’s historic landscapes and continually strives to reach a level of excellence that will make Londoners proud, too.

It expects its contractors to strive to surpass expectations in the project work we deliver, continuing to keep the parks and their structures safe, open and looking their best.

The smallest details matter. From ensuring that lights in key buildings are working so the team can deliver key services and keeping the streetlights on so the parks are safe, to maintaining the spotlights that illuminate the monuments that highlight our important heritage to the millions of visitors to the parks each year, a meticulous attention to detail is imperative.

OCS will be anticipating maintenance needs and performing preventative works in a timely manner, delivering long-term, long-lasting solutions while also providing a proactive and rapid response when unexpected repairs are needed.

That reliable and consistent service is essential so visitors can enjoy the parks to the full, all year round.