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A new car park: great for the arboretum, great for you!

The arboretum you enjoy today is largely the vision of one man – Robert Holford – who inherited the Westonbirt Estate in the 1830s and set about creating a landscape to impress.

In recognition of Westonbirt’s aesthetic value the arboretum today is a Grade I registered landscape.

The Downs were designed as a foreground leading into Holford’s arboretum. It was never designed as a car park!

Twinned with the new Welcome Building, the new car park will ensure a better introduction to the arboretum and enable landscape restoration.

The nuts and bolts

Work has started on the new car park and will last until July 2013. During this time, visitors will continue to park on the current car park site and in the overflow areas on the Downs in busier times.

The car park surfaces strike a balance between planning requirements, durability and aesthetics. The car park access roads will be bitmac with wider, curbed, compacted stone parking bays.

Capacity and arrival

We will almost triple our car parking spaces to over 400, with an additional 22 spaces for people with disabilities. There will be a separate coach park screened by a row of cypress.

Visitors will park and then pay on foot through the new Welcome Building, reducing queuing on the entrance road.

Trees please!

Trees for the car park have been selected. 

Large oaks and planes will provide structure and shade.

Smaller ornamental trees, including maples and birches, will give colour and provide a visual connection with the arboretum.

We will also trial species that could be more commonly planted in our towns and cities in years to come.