Hammersmith and Fulham Council hopes to receive £4m from the Heritage Lottery Fund’s (HLF) Parks for People grant to regenerate Bishop’s Park and Fulham Palace grounds back to its seaside Victorian days.

The council’s plans, drawn up by landscape firm LDA Design, show Bishops Park’s lake, pond, terracotta balustrade walkway and the 1,000sq m Fulham beach restored. LDA Design partner Andrew Harland said: “They are aiming to restore its character with the central focus on the lake and urban beach aiming to take it back to its Victorian heyday.”

The play area will be relocated from beside the lake to another part of the park, the pitch and putt golf course is to be reinstated and an interactive fountain will replace the former lakeside bandstand.

As a separate project a sports area with tennis court and pavilion is planned in partnership with The Queens’ Club.

Green space will be landscaped into four gardens, including a managed wildlife wilderness section and an organic garden near Fulham Palace, with a functional kitchen for demonstrations on how to prepare organic produce.

The project was developed in collaboration with local residents. Councillor Paul Bristow, cabinet member of residents’ services, said: “Our residents are at the heart of this project and the design incorporates all the uses they wanted from the park.”

The local authority, if successful, expects to begin work in 2010 and pending the amount of funding will invest up to £2.9m into the project.

•Beaches are a growing trend for London regeneration. Major Ken Livingstone has also proposed turning Victoria Embankment into “London Beach” in 2010, similar to the Paris Plage a two-mile stretch of sand along the Seine, as a way of increasing tourism. He also promises in his current election manifesto to convert the Olympic site into London’s biggest park in 200 years.