Exclusive:Fundraising for £65m second phase of Botanics glass house refurbishment to begin 'as soon as possible'
Phase two of the project will cost £65m
Fundraising is to begin “as soon as possible” for the second phase of a major renovation project of glass houses at the Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh as the garden’s Victorian Palm Houses prepare to open to the public for the first time.
Professor Julia Knights, the regius keeper of the garends, said she hoped a “chunk” of the £65 million needed for the project would be provided by the Scottish Government, but revealed a public fundraising campaign would begin imminently.
The £23.5m refurbishment of the glass houses, which re-open after a five-year closure today, was funded by a Scottish Government grant, as well as more than £10m raised from major donors including the National Lottery Heritage Fund, as well as supporters, members and £250,000 through a public appeal. It is part of a wider £58m investment already made in the first phase of the Edinburgh biomes project.
The second phase renovation would see the aging research glasshouses overhauled, alongside the creation of a plant health hub to quarantine species brought in from overseas, are set to be the focus of part of the second phase of the Edinburgh Biomes initiative.
Prof Knights estimates phase two of the project, which will also see the final stages of the creation of a sustainable energy centre using ground source heat pumps which would connect to the glasshouses, could take around three years.
“We think it will cost at least £65 million,” she said. “We’re hoping we’ll get a chunk of that from the Scottish Government, but again, we’ll do lots of our own fundraising. This isn’t just about a precious collection for Scotland, but as a precious collection for the world that has huge global significance.
“We hope to start fundraising as soon as possible, now that we’re about to open our Palm House to the public. We’ve got a lot of 1960s research glass houses which are looking after 3,000 precious plants in our living collection, many of them endangered, many of them extinct in the wild across many countries, so they are irreplaceable plants.
“We’re really keen that our visitors can see the other research glass houses, but the problem is they are at the end of life and they keep failing because they’re very old, so it’s not safe to let the visitors into those parts of the gardens yet. But we want to, we know our visitors are very keen to see the rest of our living collection under glass and we’re desperate to show them as well.”
She added: “That is going to be the next stage, alongside a new plant health hub suite where we can quarantine seeds and spores and plants when we bring them in for three to six months so we’re not bringing in any of the diseases which could wipe out our precious living collection.”
The Victorian Palm House renovation required the replacement of more than 5,000 panes of glass, as well as the temporary relocation of hundreds of plant species.
At an event to mark the reopening of the Palm Houses, the Scottish Government’s cabinet secretary for climate action, Gillian Martin, said: “For generations, the iconic Palm Houses at Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh have inspired visitors from Scotland and around the world. The restoration of these heritage glasshouses helps to safeguard the globally important plant collections here for the future, ensuring vital work in conservation, education and scientific discovery can continue.
“At a time when the impacts of biodiversity loss and climate change are being felt around the world, the work undertaken at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh to save species from extinction is critical. The reopening of the Palm Houses is a powerful reminder of the value of investing in our natural and cultural heritage, and I congratulate everyone involved in this extraordinary restoration project."
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