People and Places

Images of students with a goat and guinea pig

Crystal Palace Park Farm and Capel Manor College

Crystal Palace Park has a long tradition of having animals in the park. In recent years the small zoo on the dinosaur island was replaced by a childrens' farm in the present location. Since the closure of the children's farm there have been no facilities to have animals in the park.

Capel Manor College and the London Development Agency (LDA) have refurbished and plan to reopen the existing farm site at Crystal Palace Park to the public.  It has just started being used by students are part of their courses with the College.

Capel Manor has earned a reputation for providing high quality learning experiences in animal husbandry and horticulture.

Capel Manor is also one of a select group of educational establishments to have been awarded Beacon status. This award recognises high quality provision and innovation in developing ways of reaching wider communities and encouraging those who would not normally access such experiences to participate in them.

Capel Manor College has an excellent Ofsted report having been awarded two Grade ones. 70 percent of its provision was judged to be outstanding or good, and no provision inspected was found to be less than satisfactory.

The farm re-opens

The farm reopened to the public in April 2008 and now provides facilities for members of the local community who are interested in developing their skills and knowledge in animal care and welfare. It is also hoped that the facilities can be used to enhance the curriculum offer available in local schools, by providing day visits for up to three thousand school children a year to the farm (at no charge to the schools).

Farm Animals
Opening times

The farm will be open to the public 300 days per year on weekdays, weekends and bank holidays.  It is currently open:

Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday

10:30am to 12 noon, and 3pm to 4:30pm

 

Saturday, Sunday

12 noon to 4pm