RPS has recently undertaken the landscape design for a Grade II listed park: Welford Road Cemetery, in Leicester, under a restoration project funded by Leicester City Council and a Heritage Lottery Fund grant in 2004 (£759,000).

The cemetery was opened in June 1849, situated on the edge of the town with views across to Charnwood Forest, and is over 12 hectares in size with around 10,000 headstones and 35,000 graves. It was designed by Gloucester architects Hamilton and Medland who took inspiration for the cemetery's inception from the British landscape architect John Loudon (see note), and had designed Plymouth's Ford-Park cemetery in the previous year.

The project included the construction of a new visitor centre with associated hard landscaping and raised planting beds. The low lying building was designed to acknowledge its relationship with the surrounding landscape, and its contemporary façade was complimented with the use of simple hard landscaping materials.

Within the footprint of the former chapel, 100 stainless steel memorial plaques mounted on granite slabs were laid; each plaque identifying and locating a significant individual buried within the cemetery. The footprint was punctuated with individual specimen shrubs as a subtle interpretation of the former chapel's vertical form. Seating and information plaques were provided at each of these feature areas, with contrasting paving marking the point of arrival.

RPS also designed the landscaping throughout the cemetery, including pathway resurfacing, new railings to the boundary, and tree and shrub planting to enhance existing planting beds.

The works were carried out by GF Tomlinson civil engineers. Paving manufacturers Blanc de Bierges made the bespoke hollow wall units for the visitor centre raised beds, and have since added this design to their product range.

The RPS Landscape Architect, chose a planting scheme to compliment the Victorian Cemetery in both planting style and species selection. Formal planting was adopted around the feature areas, whilst ornamental shrub planting enhanced existing shrub areas. The species chosen were separated into classifications of accent specimens, enhancement shrub planting and herbaceous underplanting, to ensure a good planting structure was maintained.

Alongside the restoration works, conservation work was carried out on a number of headstones, focusing on securing those that were unsafe, and restoring some of the more historically and architecturally significant memorials. In addition, two stone wyverns on top of the main entrance gate piers were replaced.

The visitor centre was officially opened in summer 2006 and the park is currently being assessed for a Green Flag Award.

Note:
Loudon, John Claudius 1783-1843. Loudon took inspiration from the formal and geometric garden designs still popular in Europe (though out of fashion in England) in the early 19th century and advocated a planting style he called 'Gardenesque' whereby exotic plants were arranged in natural compositions. His particular interest was in public gardens, and examples of his work include Birmingham Botanical Gardens and Derby Arboretum.

For more information please contact:
RPS (Wolverhampton) - Planning & Development
T: 01902 771331