Chair's update, December 2023

Tom Walker, Chair

2024 will be the year when the restoration of Abney Park is finally complete. We can't wait to re-establish a permanent and more visible base in the park.  We will be ramping up our activities and a taster is set out below.  We also hope to do some open house tours in January. 

Here is a link to a story in 2018 when the first capacity funding was provided for this long awaited project.  

If you missed it, we recently published our annual report and accounts which we file as a registered charity.  If you look on the Charity Commission page about us you will see the last five years’ performance.  We broke even this year which is a great outcome considering the challenges the restoration work has thrown up.  We expect to run a small loss this financial year but have made provision for that.  

What about all the Lottery funding? It is worth saying that all the Lottery Fund money for the physical restoration is separate to our ongoing costs which essentially pay for our two team members.  We will be running some lottery funded activities next year which will be provided at no cost to give more people more opportunities to access and learn about Abney.  We are likely to need to fundraise to reach a sustainable model.  

If you want to get involved with fundraising or any expertise and want to support the Trust, then please get in touch.

Happy Christmas and New Year, and thanks for your support and patience this year.