about us

The history of the
london wildcare trust

The origins of our charity date back to 1993, when our founder, Ted Burden, discovered an injured swift outside his home in Worcester Park. Six months later, after finding himself involved with several other local wildlife casualties, Ted set up the Sutton Wildlife Ambulance Service, which was soon re-named to Sutton Wildlife Rescue (SWR).

Between 1994 and the end of 1996, the fledgling group grew from responding to a handful of calls to admitting 566 patients in a single year. Realizing that even this number would soon be surpassed, the decision to seek proper premises and move the operation away from a domestic dwelling was inevitable.

At the start of 1997, Sutton Council was seeking to find a use for a former depot building in Beddington Park. Their Parks Service had formed a close working relationship with Ted’s project SWR and was engaged in an ambitious plan to turn Beddington Park, the neighbouring sewage works and Mitcham Common into the Wandle Valley Country Park.

The synergy between the wildlife rescue and the country park was obvious and so the Council offered the depot to SWR to create a proper wildlife hospital. Registered charity status was granted and, in keeping with the project, the new centre was named the Wandle Valley Wildlife Hospital (WVWH).

In 1997, in its new home, WVWH admitted 1709 animals, tripling its figures for the previous year. The following year this rose to 2597 and in 1999, with considerable interest now established in our work we were selected by ITV to be the featured facility in an eight part series called Animal Tales. Airing every Friday at 5.15, this programme launched the then London Weekend Television throughout the summer months. This proved a mixed blessing as, although admission numbers rose to over 3000, the charity’s income didn’t keep pace and we found ourselves on the brink of closure.

A public appeal averted the crisis but we realized that our name was losing us donations as people across London did not identify with it...sadly, the Council’s bid to the Lottery Millennium fund had not been successful and the country park scheme had been shelved. Therefore, in 2001, we formed a new charity called London Wildcare, to better reflect the geographical area we now served. We also secured a major grant from charity Care For The Wild to re-build a derelict section of our site so as to increase the space available for animal wards and night duty staff.

In 2004, we took on a 5 year lease to run a former Wandsworth Council Nature Study Centre, during which time we brought a new perspective to teaching science-based ecology lessons to local schools and groups, receiving considerable praise in the process. Throughout the years between 2001 and 2009, our annual admission numbers remained between 3300 and 4000 a year but, with rising costs and falling donations owing to the recession, we again faced financial crises on more than one occasion. On each occasion, our members and the public rallied around and saved the centre, realizing the value of our work to animals and people alike.

Having been drawn more and more into the world of providing emergency rescue services to domestic animals, especially in recent years, we decided at the end of 2009 to formally change our constitution and adopt a new working name so as to be able to properly help . Thus, on 4th April 2010, we became the Riverside Animal Centre, still as a part of the London Wildcare Trust and you can read about all of the new work we now do by clicking on our PETS link. Our WILDLIFE work remains unchanged, and is at the heart of what we do, and our experience in education, gained through our time in Wandsworth, is now put to good use as we run our own activities out of our BARN.

We look forward to the next, exciting stage in our life and hope to be able to count upon your support as we head into the second decade of the 21st century.