London National Park City
London is the world's first National Park City
London became the world’s first National Park City in July 2019, the culmination of a grassroots campaign which all began when a group of friends and colleagues got together and asked “What if we imagined our city as National Park City?”
London National Park City is a vibrant and active convenor of practical grassroots and community-led action to support local nature recovery in neighbourhoods across the capital.
Our Charity, The National Park City Foundation (1173267) coordinates and supports our grassroots movement across London, to deliver the shared commitments and ambition outlined in the Charter for London National Park City. We celebrate and support the work of thousands of individuals and organisations actively making London greener, healthier and wilder.
We attract, recruit, empower, and support a diverse community of volunteer Rangers within every London Borough capable of supporting communities and making their neighbourhoods greener, healthier and wilder.
In doing so our aim is to make our city a place where people and nature are better connected, by building the capacity, reach, resource, skills and confidence of our volunteer Ranger community in every London neighbourhood.
180 Volunteer Rangers
Our 180 volunteer London National Park City Rangers are passionate people of all ages, from across the whole of London, with a wide range of experiences and talents.
Small Grants, Big Impact
In 2025 we launched our small grants programme and we’ve funded 113 ranger and community led projects in 23 Boroughs across London so far.
In July 2019 that became a reality when the Mayor of London signed the Charter making London the first such National Park City
We receiving the support of a majority of local ward councillors across every London Borough.
You might be asking yourself, how can London, an urban jungle of over 8 million people be considered to be anything like a national park?
London can be a wild place – home to almost 15,000 species, living alongside us humans, and around 50% green and blue space, made-up of acres of public parks, green belt, front gardens, canals, ponds and pockets of nature and wildlife. There are National Parks representing every imaginable form of environment, we think it’s high time urban environments were celebrated as well.
Our Aims for London
We want more bird song, ultimate frisbee, hill-rolling, tree climbing, cycling, hedgehogs, volunteering, sharing, outdoor play, kayaking, clean air, otters, greener streets, outdoor learning, ball games, outdoor art and hilltop dancing in the city!
The National Park City movement began with a simple idea in 2013; how might we think differently about the way we live in our cities if we applied the principles and purpose of National Parks to urban areas.
We have four aims for the London National Park City:
- Connect everyone to nature and the outdoors everyday
- Create more high-quality, accessible, and bidiversegreen and blue space
- Promote the rich cultural life enabled by the outdoors and nature reconnection
- Inspire more cities around the world to become National Park Cites
We want to introduce more people to the nature around them, to celebrate the amazing work carried out by so many conservation and grassroots organisations already working hard across London and beyond.
We are here to help connect and support those who want to volunteer within their communities to improve their neighbourhoods and link with others to learn from each other and share resources.
People live better lives in cities when they have access to good quality, wilderness and outdoors. More green space adds value to transport routes, local economies and children’s development. Nature helps manage the climate, reduces pollution and addresses many physical and mental health issues.
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Sign up to find out how you can help make your city greener, healthier, and wilder and have some fun along the way.
Find ways to get involved, volunteer some time, or come along to one of our regular events.