5 minutes with... Xanthe Arvanitakis

Director of Chiswick House & Gardens Trust

Who are you?

My name is Xanthe Arvanitakis and I am the Director of Chiswick House & Gardens Trust.

What’s your business all about?

Chiswick House & Gardens Trust is a small local charity that looks after 65-acres of Grade-I registered gardens, a beautiful walled Kitchen Garden and an 18th century Palladian villa. Open for everyone, every day, the gardens are a peaceful and vital green haven for people from right across West London. Every year, we welcome more than 3,300 participants to our community programme, enjoy the support of over 200 volunteers in the gardens and the House, and donate half the produce we grow to local food charities.

Three

words to describe yourself?

Energetic, resilient & strategic. Ideal customer?

We have a range of visitors, from daily dog walkers who live locally to school children and seniors from across the borough. Our ideal visitor is anyone who loves being outside, enjoys our gardens, engages with our work and pops into our café for a coffee!.

Biggest achievement?

I am so proud of everything that my incredible, hardworking and resilient staff and army of volunteers achieve every day. Not only do they care for 65 acres of grade 1 listed gardens, ensuring they stay open for all, and multiple listed buildings and statuary, but they are also fundraising and managing a major capital redevelopment project that will expand our schools, community and volunteer programmes and create vital new income streams to help cover the Trust’s core costs. We’re turning historic sheds and stables into artist studios, fostering a creative home for local and London-based artist makers, and building new facilities for the local community, including the ‘icing on the cake’: a restored 17th century fruit garden.

Biggest gripe?

Litter – please take it home and recycle responsibly!

Your inspiration?

I’m inspired by all the people we work with, from our community partners to daily visitors. There is nothing more motivating and delightful than the look on a 7-year-old’s face on seeing a carrot being pulled from the ground by one of our Kitchen Garden team. Their amazement is off the scale when they get to turn it into something yummy to eat!

Philosophy in business?

It’s all about fostering positive and constructive partnerships. Everything we do at Chiswick House & Gardens Trust is only possible with the support of our partners, community groups, volunteers, visitors and funders.

Sporting hero?

It has to be Denise Lewis DBE – what a legend. Not only is she an Olympic gold winner, also voted sportswomen of the year multiple times, she has a successful TV career and uses her influence to support multiple community based charities. She also hails from Wolverhampton and went to the same school as my husband!

Biggest tip for success?

Don’t get defeated when things don’t go according to plan and keep looking for the silver lining.