As part of our range of initiatives we are launching to improve the experience we provide to the more than 80,000 people who visit us each year, we are transforming the main gatehouse to our gardens and moving it to a new building.  

Located next to our existing visitor center, the new Gardens Gatehouse will house: 

• the main visitor entrance and information point, with new extended opening hours  
• our craft shop, expanded to provide a wider range of gifts and handcrafted items including those produced by the tutors that teach at West Dean 
• our plant nursery, which visitors can explore and buy from 
• a new craft demonstration area, providing a space where visitors can have a taste of what our craft, horticulture and design courses offer. 

Due to open in spring 2026, the new building will be housed in our former biomass facility and is designed to be environmentally sustainable in how it is constructed and run. 

The new development forms part of West Dean’s ongoing plans to develop the experience for our visitors, and showcase the creativity and heritage that makes West Dean special. We are also launching a new programme of short taster sessions that will provide visitors with the chance to try their hand at new crafts and explore their creativity through fun, hands-on activities in a relaxed and friendly setting.   

Further projects planned in future include enhancements to our visitor dining facilities, which will be expanded to accommodate more guests and continue to sell produce sourced from the West Dean estate and local area. 

The current visitor centre will remain open in its current location until spring 2026. In the meantime, visitors can continue to use the current centre, where the team can help with information about West Dean and help with Gardens Memberships. There are lots of fantastic events coming up in the next few months, which you can find out about here.

About the transformation 

West Dean Gardens is one of the greatest restored gardens open to the public and today sees more than 80,000 visitors a year. In 2025 we embarked on a project to develop the main visitor entrance to our gardens and dining facilities. To create the Gardens Gatehouse, we are transforming West Dean’s original biomass heating site.   

In 1981, The Edward James Foundation made a commitment to environmentally sustainable energy, with the installation of one of the first woodchip-fired biomass boilers in the UK. Fueled entirely by sustainably produced materials from the West Dean Estate, the system has been heating the workshops, studios, student accommodation, and other buildings ever since.  

In 2016, a new Energy Centre was brought in to supply energy to the properties serviced by the old system, with the new system allowing a further 22 residential properties on the estate to be added, with no increase in the amount of wood required.  

This means the former biomass building became vacant, providing the opportunity for it to be transformed into the new facility. Materials have been repurposed to make new shelving and furniture, and in line with our heritage principles, the structure of the building has been left as close to the original as possible. 

The building will be lit using LED fittings and the heating will be taken from our district heating system fed from the new biomass. As our electricity is sourced from a renewable energy supplier, the building will be as sustainable as possible without needing to demolish and start again. 

Stay up to date  

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If you have any enquiries, you can contact our team at [email protected].