The National Lottery Heritage Fund has approved £4.1m to dismantle derelict Broomfield House and create a memorial garden in Broomfield Park. Enfield's Cabinet decides on accepting the grant on Wednesday 9 September.

The National Lottery Heritage Fund has approved a £4.1m grant to dismantle the derelict Broomfield House in Palmers Green and turn its site into a memorial garden. Enfield Council’s Cabinet is asked to accept the grant and commit £500,000 of match funding on Wednesday 9 September.

If Cabinet agrees, construction would start in November 2027 and finish in November 2028. That would settle the future of a building the council says it has been trying to fund the preservation of for more than 40 years. (Enfield Council, Cabinet report KD 6055)

What is planned

The project, called “Unlocking Broomfield for the Community”, does not restore the house. The council’s report says the agreed vision is to dismantle it while keeping “some aspect of the house remaining as ruins”, and to reconnect the site to the park. The plans include:

  • a memorial garden on the footprint of the house, with the soundest sections kept as ruins
  • a full record of the dismantling, with “a home found for the most important historic fabric”
  • interpretation and wayfinding to tell the house’s story
  • landscaping of the area around the house and the East Lawn, opening up vistas to the park’s double tree avenue
  • a two-year programme of community activities, from walks to creative sessions, running alongside the works

The matching planning and listed building consent applications, refs 26/02136/RE4 and 26/02137/LBC, were submitted on 21 May 2026 and are still awaiting decision. Both describe “removing unstable walls and adapting sound sections” to turn “the remaining footprint of the ruin into a garden space with landscape restoration”. (Enfield planning register)

Why the council says restoration is off the table

The report is blunt about the building’s condition. Scaffold condition reports from 2022 and 2023 found the internal scaffolds “no longer providing support”, with floors failed and props freestanding. The register of past applications shows restoration schemes going back to the 1990s, none of which went ahead.

Rejecting the grant was considered and dismissed. The report says walking away would leave the house “a remaining blight on the landscape”, keep Broomfield Park on Historic England’s at-risk register, and cause “very severe reputational damage” with funders, Historic England and local groups including the Friends of Broomfield Park and the Broomfield House Trust. The council also says it has no budget to fund the work itself.

The money

Timeline graphic: technical design starts October 2026, community activities start February 2027, design complete May 2027, contractor appointed October 2027, construction runs November 2027 to November 2028, and the activities programme ends August 2029. A funding bar shows £4.1m from the National Lottery Heritage Fund (89%) and £0.5m from Enfield Council (11%) of the £4.6m total.
The project timeline and funding split, from Cabinet report KD 6055. Graphic by Enfield Today.
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The delivery bid was submitted in May 2026 and has now been approved:

  • £4,073,766 from the National Lottery Heritage Fund, 89% of the cost
  • £493,236 from the council, planned to come from capital receipts in 2028/29 and 2029/30
  • a £4.6m total added to the council’s capital programme

A fundraising plan aims to raise about £300,000, which would reduce the council’s share. The council has also submitted a separate early-stage bid to the Heritage Fund for the park’s stable yard and stables, which sit alongside the house on the at-risk register; that is a second project and not part of Wednesday’s decision.

What it means for you

  • Nothing changes in the park immediately. Technical design runs from October 2026, and construction is not due to start until November 2027.
  • The community activities start earlier, in February 2027, and run to August 2029.
  • The planning applications are still open. Both can be viewed and commented on through the council’s planning register under refs 26/02136/RE4 and 26/02137/LBC, and we track major applications on our Enfield planning news page.
  • Cabinet meets at 7pm on Wednesday 9 September. The agenda and papers are on the council’s website.

The council says the scheme would remove the cost of scaffolding, security and reactive maintenance it currently carries, and would work towards a Green Flag award for the park and its removal from the Historic England risk register.

Sources