#LoveLowndes - Fund the Fun is a community group tasked with raising funds to build and improve play facilities in Chesham's Lowndes Park.

We are a group of volunteers from Chesham. Love Lowndes is a Friends of Lowndes Park project in partnership with Chesham Town Council.

We've done it once - we can do it again!

In March 2025 we opened our new 5-11s playground in Lowndes Park. It took us 2 years, but we raised £220,000 and created the most magical new play space for our children - you can read all about it and the heroes that made it happen here.

And now we need to do it again for the babies and toddlers.

Phase 2 - the Early Years playground

We need to raise a further £150,000 to build our babies and toddlers a playground and also replace the zip line for the older children. 

Chesham's pre-schoolers deserve a bigger, more accessible, inclusive and sustainable playground  too.

We need YOUR help!

There are so many ways you can get involved. 

• Making a donation - just click DONATE above
• Raise FREE MONEY via Easy Fundraising - sign up and shop online as usual and the brand sends us money. Winner!
• Organise your own sponsored event or fundraising activity. Click the Start Fundraising button and set up your own webpage (linked to ours and our bank account) and all funds go to us.

Heartfelt thanks to everyone who’s helped us on the journey so far. Whether that be donation, attending an event, helping us, donating their time or skills or simply spreading the word – we couldn’t do it without you.  

About our project

Lowndes Park is Chesham's main green space. It is the green heart of Chesham. Help is make it fit for the next 100 years of enjoyment.

But why?

The existing play facilities are worn out, unwelcoming, inaccessible and not positioned in ideal locations. The playground isn’t inclusive or welcoming and doesn’t represent the aspirations of the town and people. 

Your children deserve better!

Just look at it...

Together we can build something they will love and that we can all be proud of.

But we CAN'T do it without YOUR support.

A wholesale re-think and re-design of the park has been undertaken. The ‘Masterplan’ was based on consultations with the Chesham communities that use the park as well as input from experts in park design and use. The new Early Years playground will be the second phase of delivering the Masterplan – a vision for another 100 years of park life!

How much?!?

Yeah, we know! £150,000 is a lot of money. But trust us, it doesn't go far. 30% of a playpark budget goes straight into the flooring and surfaces. Then you need a fence, bins, benches and signage. Oh, and don't forget design costs!

Ooof. Suddenly your budget for building a dream park doesn't seem so grand. Add to that the average cost of a fairly simple climbing frame can be £30k.

So, we've set £150k as a minimum build target. We'd love more. 

The more we raise, the more creative and ambitious we can be with our design.

We've already raised money! And have plans to find more.

We're thrilled to say we already have £35,000 towards the project. We're also pursuing some large grant funds which will see us well on the way towards our target.

Our mission

We will...

• provide a new, imaginative and physically challenging play experience for the children and young people of Chesham and surrounding towns and villages
• create an inspiring play space that will please, excite, challenge and stimulate the children’s imagination
• promote positive attitudes to children and young people in the community through play opportunities and providing a safe environment for play as part of our approach to a sustainable community
• reflect Chesham’s heritage and enhance the look and feel of the park
• recognise the importance of community life for children.

Creative Brief

The new play space in Lowndes Park should work in harmony with the exceptional natural surroundings of the Chiltern Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and reflect the historic town of Chesham. We would like to see a design that works with nature, makes the most of the existing landscape and blends with the rest of the park’s facilities.  

We are inspired by our history and landscape.

What kind of playground could we have?

Through various consultations via the Friends of Lowndes Park, the Chesham Town Council, the Masterplan design team and through the work Love Lowndes is doing, we have a wealth of knowledge from the Chesham community about the kind of play space we need to create.

What we don't want is a conventional playground. 

The more we raise, the more creative and ambitious we can be with our design.

Sure, everyone wants a swing, a slide and a roundabout, but there are ways to include those essential elements into a much more creative and exciting play space.

And finally...

Thank you! For reading this, for donating, for coming to an event, for sharing this page, for spreading the word, for supporting us in any and all the ways you can. This is a community project FOR the community. You are our heroes.

Special thank yous...

To Claire Vickers for the amazing logo, Middleton Man for the beautiful drone photography and Matt Writtle for the stunning photos. We couldn't do this without volunteers like you.

FAQs

To find our more about the project and read our FAQ's, please visit the Friends of Lowndes Park Playground project page.

Our Phase 1 heroes

Of the total funds raised, CTC contributed £35,500 towards the playground, and the remaining money was found through a wide range of local fundraising activities within the community, successful grant applications and corporate sponsorship. A special thanks to the following organisations and businesses for their donations: 

• Veolia Environmental Trust
• The Douglas McMinn Centre Charity
• Chesham Town Council
• The National Lottery Community Fund
• Chesham and Villages Community Boards
• Rothschild Foundation 

Love Lowndes Corporate Sponsors:

• Platinum: Silverson, The Entertainer and Mencap
• Gold: Chesham Prep School 
• Silver:  Perspective (Home Counties) Ltd. and Ash Wills 

A full list of all organisations and businesses and volunteers who contributed towards the new playground is published on the Friends of Lowndes Park website. They are the Heroes Who Made It Happen! 

All the legal stuff

Love Lowndes is a Friends of Lowndes Park project.

Friends of Lowndes Park is committed to protecting your privacy. When you interact with us by phone, mail, in person or online, we sometimes receive personal information about you.

As a small community group focused on working with our members and supporters, we are exempt from registering with the Information Commissioner’s Office. We are working according to the General Data Protection Regulation.

See our full privacy statement here.