The Eastbrookend Discovery Centre is an environmentally friendly visitor centre, opened in Eastbrookend in 1997 with funding from the Millennium Commission and designed to demonstrate best practice in environmental construction.
The centre is open to the public throughout the year. It is the base of operation for the Park Rangers Service and the venue for our Outdoor Classroom environmental education and outdoor learning sessions.
The building forms a natural gateway into the wide-open spaces of Eastbrookend Country Park and the Dagenham Chase Local Nature Reserve. Some of the park can be explored via a nature trail with rubbing posts leading through woodland and around lakes, and ‘Arty’s Sculpture Trail’ featuring wooden characters from the children’s book ‘Arty’s Eastbrookend Adventure’), both of which cover circular routes beginning and ending at the centre. The Discovery Centre also contains an introduction to the history of the site, along with the following facilities:
- Eastbrookend Country Park Tea Room
- education room (for use with school groups and available for private hire)
- toilets and baby-changing facilities
- children’s playground
- outdoor gym
- free car park
The centre acts as the focal point for visitors and provides a comfortable venue for walkers, school groups and anyone wanting to learn more about the local countryside or environment. The Park Rangers office is located on the first floor.
New Eastbrookend Discovery Centre Children’s Play Area
Eastbrookend Country Park Tea Room
The Eastbrookend Country Park Tea Room is now open 7 days a week (working in collaboration with Barking and Dagenham College with the REACH Supported Internship Programme).
Current Tea Room opening times (stays open later in Summer):
- Monday to Friday, 9:30am to 3pm
- Weekends, 9:30am to 4:30pm
The cafe offers a great value, varied menu including:
- breakfast
- fresh filled Brick Lane bagels
- sandwiches
- baguettes
- loaded jacket potatoes
- cream teas
- delicious cakes
- Kelly’s Cornish ice cream
There’s even Waggy Doggy ice cream for our 4-legged friends to enjoy on the terrace and 10% discount for key workers.
Room hire
The Education Room is available for hire by community groups and members of the public for meetings, celebrations and talks.
This large, versatile space has sliding glass doors which overlook and open directly onto the country park, via a covered patio area. It has a capacity of:
- 40 people standing
- 30 people sitting theatre-style
- 20 people boardroom style (sitting around a table)
For more information on room hire, please contact us.
Opening hours
April to September: 9am to 6pm daily and the car park will be locked at 9:30pm
October to March: 9am to 4pm daily and the car park will be locked at 6:30pm
Energy efficient design
The Discovery Centre was designed to be as energy efficient as possible both in construction and in use. Many innovative techniques were used in the construction of the building.
Foundations
There are no conventional foundations under the centre. There are a number of large helical screws that anchor the building to the ground. The anchors can be taken out leaving the earth unspoilt should the building be removed at any time in the future.
Wind turbine
This is a clean and sustainable way of generating energy. The wind turbine was installed to generate electricity to power lighting inside the building.
Roof
The roof is south facing to catch as much light and heat from the sun as possible. It is made of recycled aluminium which could come from old drink cans. Don’t forget to put all your empty food tins and drinks cans into the recycling – they might end up in the roof of another building similar to this in future!
Walls and insulation
The walls are constructed using masonite wood fibre composite studs; external walls (and roof) are insulated with recycled newspaper or ‘cellulose blown fibre’. This enables the walls to breathe eliminating condensation. The windows are double or triple glazed to allow maximum heat retention.
Solar Panels
Since the UK is in the Northern hemisphere, the sun is always more to the South of us, so the South-facing roof is perfectly positioned for solar panels to capture as much sunlight as possible and provide more energy to the building. The car park lighting is also solar powered.
Rainwater recycling
Rainwater from the roof is drawn into channels and collects in an underground reservoir to be recycled for watering the surrounding plants.
These features all help to reduce energy consumption of the building, ensuring cost-effective building management.
Access for disabled users
For information about access for disabled users, please visit AccessAble.
Address
Eastbrookend Discovery Centre, Eastbrookend Country Park, The Chase, Dagenham, RM7 0SS