South Garden

The bird garden was over 50 years old and no longer met modern zoo standards. We know that many people loved and enjoyed the bird garden so this made the decision to close it a very difficult one. However, after assessing our options, including how much it would cost to upgrade the zoo, we felt closing the bird garden was the most responsible and ethical decision to take.

The birds – many of which were exotic or endangered – were re-homed in zoos across England which were better equipped to ensure their life-long care, including the penguins. They have thrived in their new homes and continue to be well-cared for.

Through its various captive breeding programmes, the bird garden made a valuable and lasting contribution to species conservation worldwide, and we remain very proud of these achievements. Our focus now is on our native wildlife, and working with Harewood Estate, we continue to protect and sustainably manage our gardens, woodlands, wetlands and grasslands for wildlife; from the Red Kites which fill our skies and the rare and native heritage animals that roam the Estate, to the bees and butterflies that pollinate our garden flowers.

Harewood House opened its doors to visitors in the 1950s and over the years visitor infrastructure has grown, and facilities have been added. However, we recognise that our buildings, infrastructure and landscape now require significant investment to ensure that we continue to meet visitor expectations as well as generate the income that we need to support our charitable work.

Over the last five years we have been working on plans to develop Harewood so that we can deliver a high-quality visitor experience while continuing to conserve and protect this Grade 1 listed House, Gardens and Landscape. We have consulted with Leeds Council and Historic England and agreed that we need to take a holistic approach to planning Harewood’s future. This means that, rather than treating each area such as the former bird garden separately, we need to prepare a plan that encompasses everything that we want to achieve over the next 10 years or so.

Everything that we do that has an impact on the buildings and landscape must be approved by Historic England and Leeds Council. This means that we must apply for planning permission for any development. This is a complicated process as not only is Harewood an important heritage site, but it also sits within the greenbelt. The greenbelt is an area of land around towns and cities where development is restricted.

The exception to this was the play area which was over 30 years old and had deteriorated to such an extent that we couldn’t maintain it for safety anymore. However, when we applied for planning permission for the play area, we had to demonstrate that the new playscape was just phase 1 of our plans.

Over the last two years we have been working with our design team on our plans including the redevelopment of the former Bird Garden, now called the South Garden. We are working with Matthew Wilson, the award winning landscape designer. Matthew was formerly the director of RHS Harlow Carr and at the 2016 Chelsea Flower Show his Welcome to Yorkshire Garden won the prestigious People’s Choice Award.

Our plans fall under the banner of ‘Reimagining Harewood’ and encompass improving visitor infrastructure including the refurbishment of the Bakehouse as a visitor centre, and restoration of the historic landscape including the South Garden. Developing the plans to a stage where we can apply for planning permission is costly and we are fundraising to enable us to proceed to this stage.

In the meantime, we have been looking at what we can achieve at low cost to enable us to re-open closed areas so that visitors can enjoy some of our best views again.

We have been advised by our planning consultants to retain the aviaries until we have planning permission for the Reimagining Harewood project. The Harewood Estate falls within the West Yorkshire green belt. The green belt is an area of land that is protected from most forms of development.

When we apply for planning permission, we must prove that any new development causes no more ‘harm’ to the green belt. Therefore, we have retained the aviaries to demonstrate that there will be a like-for-like replacement of buildings when we develop the Bakehouse visitor centre. We have been advised not to demolish the aviaries until we have planning permission for the new development.

We have decided to reopen the historic lakeside path that runs through the South Garden and links with the Lakeside gardens. This will enable visitors to once again enjoy the views across the Lake and the Estate.

The route will also be used for our new off-road mobility vehicles (trampers). The existing path from the Courtyard to the Lakeside is too steep for the trampers so we needed to re-establish the South Garden route for them.

Subject to funding, we hope to be able to submit the planning application for the Reimagining Harewood project in spring 2026. We anticipate that the planning process will take several months but once we have approval, we can start to implement our plan for the South Garden. Matthew Wilson has designed a garden that will provide all year-round interest, and the Courtyard terraces will be expanded to create new seating areas for everyone to enjoy the wonderful views across our gardens and historic landscape.