Acacia Hall Historic Park, Dartford
HMY were appointed by Principal Contractor Coleman & James to assist in delivering the designs for the Acacia Hall/Central Park Restoration Project in the centre of Dartford. Working with the South East Rivers Trust, Dartford Borough Council and the Environment Agency the project aim was to naturalise the River Darenth chalk stream through the park and improve the public realm.
The Acacia Hall site includes the Grade II listed building (Mansion House), Coach House and former mill building. It is thought the site of the mansion house has been used as a cornmill since the early 13th Century. In 1898 the house, mill and grounds we leased as a social club for employees of the drug company Burroughs Wellcome & Co. This company was later purchased GlaxoSmithKline, which took ownership of the entire Acacia Hall site, including the mansion house. In 1962, the mill building was destroyed in a fire, and on the site a new ballroom and bar was then built on its site.
The site was purchased by Dartford Borough Council and the masterplan developed in conjunction with the Central Park. The site had many additions and alterations over the years and the scheme proposed stripping back the site with selected demolition, revealing the listed structures in a more naturalised setting. The project was an opportunity to restore an important public space linking the existing substantial regeneration of Dartford Town centre with the adjacent Fast-Track bus system.
The works included new 350 space car parking with new bridges over the river, and landscaping to allow the public safer and accessible routes to the town centre, adjoining park, and to link the existing structures and buildings together visually and physically. Darent Suite, the existing community hall, has been fully refurbished and the adjacent mill building restored externally.
