Gatehouse & Learning Centre

The new building will bring the finishing touches to the renovation of the garden and provide a multifunctional space housing ‘La Choppe’, a crew room, secure storage and the learning and heritage centre, that will add a whole new dimension to this very special part of Guernsey and enable GBT to deliver its educational programmes that support many areas of our community, to an even higher standard.

Work started on the two phased building programme in February 2020.  A month later, well, we all know what happened then!  Lock downs, social distancing and supply shortages had a significant impact on progress.  What had been expected to be a two year job is now approaching 3 ½ years, although in fairness, the pandemic and its knock on effects have added at least 1 ½ years, so when looking at it from that perspective we are still pretty much on target, and we’ve added a third phase of work too!  And, looking at it from another positive angle, we’ve been able to raise the funding to cover the entire project.

The fund raising element dictated the need to phase the work and we are very appreciative of the allowances made by our building contractor, P&J Ogier, who structured his plan around a two phased programme.  He also adjusted his schedule to allow Community Service to undertake the internal decoration and fit out of the building, which has helped enormously by reducing some of the original costs.  All of this has allowed fund raising to continue alongside the building work and, with the receipt of donations in June 2023, has enabled the total cost of the project, including the third phase of external work, to be covered.

We would like to thank everyone who has supported us with their kind generosity and we look forward to welcoming you to the garden later in the year to see what will be a wonderful addition to the island’s horticultural heritage.