Step into Volunteering at Gunnersbury

Museum Stewards help our visitors enjoy our beautiful, newly refurbished museum. They spend time in the galleries and historic rooms encouraging visitors to engage with Gunnersbury’s heritage, natural environment and fascinating local history collection. They employ brilliant communication skills to share their passion and enthusiasm for local social history with a diverse range of people.

When: Weekly shifts available between 10am - 4.30pm, Tuesday - Sunday

Working with: Gunnersbury Park and Museum Volunteers, Visitor Assistants and the Volunteer Manager

Department: Front of House

How you’ll help

Museum Stewards help our visitors enjoy our beautiful museum. They spend time in the galleries and historic rooms encouraging visitors to engage with Gunnersbury’s heritage, natural environment, and fascinating local history collection. Working alongside the Visitor Experience Team, they employ brilliant communication skills to share their passion and enthusiasm for local social history with a diverse range of people.

Museum Stewards can also be trained to take volunteer-led tours around the museum.

Who makes a good volunteer?

We’re looking for people who enjoy being with, and can communicate well with, a wide variety of people. Reliability and good timekeeping are essential qualities, along with enthusiasm, a positive attitude and a strong interest in helping others to engage with heritage and history. This is a great role for someone who loves sharing their stories, spending time chatting with people who share their interests and learning new things.

Full training will be provided for all volunteers.

This volunteer role is based within the park's team in the historic walled community garden and wider park. Gunnersbury Park is a beautiful 170+ acre site that is home to a wide collection of local, heritage and exotic plants and trees.

There are three main roles:

• Community Kitchen Garden Volunteers. The Community Kitchen Garden is situated within one of the original walled gardens that once provided Gunnersbury’s occupants with edible produce and cut flowers. Volunteers have been developing the site since 2012 and are essential to maintaining the garden as an invaluable resource for our Learning programme. 
• Nature Trail Volunteers. This role is very hands on and may involve manual labour (e.g. turning over soil, planting etc). This group is based in the wider park and helps with general clearance, hedgerows, pathways and borders.
• Heritage Core Volunteers. Volunteers need horticultural experience as this group focuses on the landscaped areas of the park.

Volunteers have an exciting opportunity to meet new people, learn new gardening skills and to help grow the historically themed park gardens in a really hands-on capacity. This is a lovely opportunity to connect with nature in a chemical free environment.

How you’ll help

• Seasonal tasks, such as seeding, planting bulbs etc
• Monitoring health of plants
• Maintaining the appearance and tidiness of the garden
• Assisting implement new garden plans and designs

Who makes a good volunteer?

• Enthusiastic
• Reliable
• Interest in or knowledge of horticulture – preferably experience growing vegetables
• Keen to spend time outdoors in a hands on role
• Self-motivated and able to carry out tasks independently as well as part of a team
• Comfortable learning new skills and information

This volunteer role is based within Gunnersbury Park, a beautiful 185+ acre site that is home to a wide collection of local, heritage and exotic plants and trees, as well as listed historic buildings. 

The purpose of the Litter Picking Volunteer’s role is to help maintain a high standard of cleanliness and safety throughout the whole park. The role is hands-on and public facing, spending time in all weather conditions and temperatures. 

The session will run weekly on Sundays 10 – 11am. This volunteer role operates from March to October only. 

How you’ll help

• Litter picking
• Monitoring for and reporting signs of damage to buildings or trees and plants
• Reporting anti-social behaviour (volunteers will never be expected or asked to approach visitors to enforce park regulations or discourage anti-social behaviour)
• Championing Gunnersbury Park & Museum and our work

Who makes a good volunteer?

We’re looking for friendly and approachable people with an eye for detail and a sensible approach to health and safety. If you enjoy walking in the outdoors, engaging with the public and doing meaningful work to improve an important community amenity, then this role is for you!

We need Public Programme Volunteers to support both our community programme and our commercial events.  

Public Programme: Public Programme Volunteers are vital to ensuring that there is support for our diverse programme of events and that they all run smoothly. These volunteers are creative, enthusiastic and personable. They are also eager to get involved and to gain an insight into how heritage public programmes are created and run. 

When: As the event programme dictates 

How you’ll help

Helping with community and/or commercial events that are scheduled throughout the year 

• Being on-site to help with visitor orientation 
• Supporting the set up and take down of events, on and off site 
• Sometimes helping with refreshments  
• Assisting with problem solving to ensure the smooth running of events 
• Where necessary manning entry/exit points 
• May involve some light manual labour such as moving tables and chairs 

Who makes a good volunteer?

We’re looking for people who enjoy being with, and can communicate well with, a wide variety of people. Reliability and an eye for presentation are essential qualities, along with enthusiasm, a positive attitude and a strong interest in providing accessible events for a diverse range of groups. This is a great role for someone who is looking to gain skills in events, programme planning and working with community groups in the heritage sector. 

Full training will be provided for all volunteers. 

This volunteer role is based within Gunnersbury Park, a beautiful 170+ acre site that is home to a wide collection of local, heritage and exotic plants and trees. There is also a Community Kitchen Garden that is situated within one of the original walled gardens that once provided Gunnersbury’s occupants with edible produce and cut flowers. This role will involve helping to maintain the whole park, carrying out practical landscape management techniques and helping visitors enjoy their visit.

This role is hands on and will involve manual work (e.g. planting, scrub clearance, tree circle creation, fencing, digging and other maintenance tasks). This role will also involve spending time in all weather and temperatures as you will be based outside.

Responsibilities Include:

• Assisting the heritage gardening team with general duties
• Independently patrolling the parklands and interacting with the public, answering questions and providing information as needed
• Patrolling the whole site 
• Monitor, record and report on live events within the parklands
• Carrying out routine tasks such as changing signs and assisting with onsite maintenance
• More hands-on DIY tasks, such as painting or sanding benches and fixing equipment
• To be the friendly face of Gunnersbury Park and Museum
• To understand and follow our security, safety and evacuation procedures

We're looking for self-motivated, reliable individuals who are willing to work independently and as part of a team. Full training will be provided.