Brockwell Hall is a net zero restoration of a Grade II* Georgian mansion and stables, transforming the Hall into an accessible café, exhibition and event hub in Brockwell Park.

Brockwell Hall is a Net Zero sustainable conservation project that has created a vibrant new community hub at the heart of Brockwell Park — one of Lambeth’s most important green spaces, welcoming over 1.25 million annual visits. Within its first year of opening in May 2025, the success is already striking: a popular café and meeting space, a community-supported exhibition, and a unique event space whose forward bookings well into 2028 will financially underpin the hub’s operation.

The starting point was very different. Before the project, less than 10% of this Grade II* listed Georgian mansion of 1813 was accessible to the public. The neighbouring Grade II listed stables yard had become Lambeth’s parks maintenance depot, filled with ad hoc structures and vehicles, while the stables themselves were partly abandoned, their heritage value damaged by lean-to additions and utilitarian adaptations. Most significantly, much of the building’s relationship with the Grade II listed Sexby designed landscape of 1892 had been lost.

Delivered for Lambeth Council with the National Lottery Heritage Fund, Historic England and the Brockwell Park Community Partnership (BPCP), the project’s heritage-led, community-orientated approach was central to its success. Placing the café at the heart of the complex flowed naturally from recognising the community’s love of the Picture Room with its Henry Strachey murals. Removing the maintenance depot opened up the distinctive wineglass stables yard as a stunning new event space, with the stables arcade carefully restored.

Equally transformational was creating a fully accessible building from one that previously had six varying levels and countless corridors and steps. Acres of tarmac were removed to introduce level paths to all main entrances, and a new internal lift now serves every floor — opening the Hall up to visitors of all abilities for the first time in its history.