Restoring Winkworth Project

We have recently completed a new Visitor Centre for the National Trust at Winkworth Arboretum in Surrey.

Winkworth Arboretum was created in the early twentieth century by Dr Wilfrid Fox, a local doctor with a passion for preserving and enhancing the wooded hillside landscape. He gifted Winkworth to the National Trust in 1952, and it remains the Trust’s only arboretum. The development site is located within the Green Belt, the Surrey Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB), and an Area of Great Landscape Value.

The project addresses a long-standing need to improve visitor infrastructure by providing modern, fit-for-purpose facilities that reflect the Arboretum’s unique ‘Spirit of Place’ while supporting its future growth and long-term restoration vision. Designed to accommodate up to 230,000 visitors per year, the scheme includes a new visitor reception, offices, restaurant and retail facilities, alongside the restoration of part of the Arboretum through the removal of a former car park and the creation of new car and coach parking facilities.

In response to the brief and the sensitivity of the landscape setting, the building has been carefully articulated as three interconnected volumes rather than a single large structure, minimising its visual impact within the surrounding environment. These volumes accommodate the reception, retail and café functions and are linked to create the required physical and visual relationships, while forming a series of welcoming external courtyards for visitors on arrival. The design embraces Dr Fox’s philosophy of ‘painting with trees’ by framing carefully curated views from the building’s interiors out into the Arboretum beyond.

IPT Architects has extensive experience in delivering projects using off-site fabrication and Modern Methods of Construction (MMC) to enhance sustainability, cost efficiency and construction quality. Cross Laminated Timber (CLT) was selected as the primary construction material for the project, contributing to a reduced embodied carbon footprint. In addition, renewable energy technologies provide more than 50% of the Visitor Centre’s energy requirements.

The Visitor Centre officially opened to the public in June 2026 and has been exceptionally well received by both visitors and stakeholders, providing a welcoming new gateway to the National Trust’s only arboretum while supporting its long-term future.