Wider upgrades to Broomfield Park are also in the works as Enfield Council submits next stage of its lottery funding bid, reports Simon Allin, Local Democracy Reporter

Broomfield House remains barely visible beneath the maze of scaffolding that has surrounded it for years — Broomfield House remains barely visible beneath a maze of scaffolding

Enfield Council wants residents to share their ideas on how to “memorialise” a historic building repeatedly damaged by fire.

The civic centre has launched a consultation on plans to improve Broomfield Park in Palmers Green as it prepares to submit the next stage of its bid for lottery funding in August.

The park contains the ruins of the Grade 2-listed mansion Broomfield House, which was built during the 16th Century but has been neglected since being damaged by a series of fires starting in 1984.

Charity Broomfield House Trust and other local groups had until recently hoped to fully restore the building, but last year the council revealed it was seeking demolition. The authority now hopes to win funding to dismantle the shell of the house and “reconnect” it to the park “through memorialisation, interpretation and landscaping”.

Colin Younger, chair of Broomfield House Trust, said: “It is not the solution we have been fighting for the last however many years. Practically speaking, we have tried every way we can – not just us, but other groups – of raising the money [for restoration].

“As time went on, it would have cost more and more, because the house got more and more damaged each time there was a fire.”

If the council’s bid is successful, it will receive an initial pot of money from the National Lottery Heritage Fund to develop a “shared vision” for the house and surrounding landscape in consultation with the local community, and to work out the costs and timeline for the project.

The application is due to be submitted next month, and the council will find out whether it has been successful in the first quarter of 2024. The next stage would be to submit a further funding bid for works to the house and park in 2025 which, if successful, would begin the following year.

Colin added: “It’s very much a step forward, which we hope would lead to, in years to come […] more money to work on the park. This part of it would hopefully include some improvements to the Baroque heritage of the park in some of the places. But in the longer term, we would not get money this time to do all the work required on the house and gardens.

“Behind the house and gardens, there is a stable block which is Grade 2-listed. At the moment, there is no plan how that might be dealt with. This is all long-term stuff.

“The important thing is that people respond to the council questionnaire about this and give their views about what should happen.”

The survey is open until Sunday, 6th August, and is available online:
Visit surveymonkey.co.uk/r/BroomfieldPark2023

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