GARDENS

See Also: COUNTRYSIDE; PARKS; PLANTS; PLEASURE GARDENS; SQUARES; MENU

Allotments

The Labourers Friend Society was founded in 1815. The organisation s supporters included the banker Sir Thomas Baring. Its activities included encouraging the provision of allotments.

In 1838 Samuel Gurney furnished allotments on his estate to the east of the River Lea.

The Manor Gardens Allotments were founded in 1900 by Major Arthur Villiers, who was a director of Barings. They disappeared in 2007. The site now forms part of the Olympic Park site.

Francis Bacon

The wealthy lawyer Francis Bacon had a notable garden at Twickenham. With his friend Jeremy Betterton, he laid out the Gray s Inn Walks.

Bacon spent over 2000 on arranging for performance of the Masque of Flowers that was performed by the gentlemen of Gray s Inn in the outdoor grounds of Whitehall Palace. The event was to celebrate the marriage of Robert Carr 1^st Earl of Somerset.

The Somersets fell from favour. In 1616 they were put on trial for the murder of Sir Thomas Overbury. Bacon, as Attorney-General, led their prosecution. Lady Somerset pled guilty and was pardoned. Her husband was convicted. Subsequently, he was released.

In 1625 Bacon published Of Gardens.

In 1609, in commemoration of Betterton, Bacon paid for the creation of a mound and summerhouse. This was the on the Jockey s Field side. Subsequently, they were demolished. Raymond Buildings (1825) now stands on the site.

Location: 5 Raymond Buildings, Gray s Inn, WC1R 5BP (red, blue)

Garden Design

John Brookes

The garden designer John Brookes (1933-2018) was influenced by Thomas Church, the American who created the California style that regarded the garden as being a room of the house. Brookes s first book was Room Outside (1969). He was responsible for decking. He was open Modernist Art in the way that Sir Geoffrey Jellicoe was.

Location: The Inchbald School, 7 Eaton Gate, SW1W 9BA. Brookes taught at the School and became its head. (orange, red)

Website: www.inchbald.co.uk

Garden Writing

John Gerard

John Gerard s own garden was on the corner of Fetter Lane.

From 1577 Gerard looked after Sir William Cecil s ornate garden on the Strand

John Claudius Loudoun

John Claudius Loudoun (1783-1843) authored numerous books. At times he would employ two amanuenses so that he could write two books at once. He would dictate a sentence for one book to one and then another to the other for the other.

Loudoun played a prime role in transferring the idea of a park from the wealthy landowner to a public, urban context.

Loudoun was a leading advocate of cemeteries that were reached by railway.

Location: 3 Porchester Terrace, W2 3TH (orange, red)

William Robinson

William Robinson worked in Regent s Park for several years. He became a journalist and author. He came to be regarded as the William Morris of the garden .

The Garden Museum

The Museum of Garden History was founded in 1977 by John and Rosemary Nicholson.

Location: The Garden Museum, 5 Lambeth Palace Road, SE1 7LB. The Museum occupies what was the churchyard of St Mary-at-Lambeth. (red, orange)

See Also: GRAVEYARDS

Website: https://gardenmuseum.org.uk

Guerrilla Gardening

Guerrilla gardening is the practice of surreptitiously planting seeds and plants on land that is owned by another party.

See Also: BUSES The Edible Bus Route

The Kensington Roof Gardens

The Kensington Roof Gardens is a 1.5-acre, roof top garden. It was created as part of the redevelopment that the Derry & Tom s department store building underwent during the early 1930s.

Location: 99 Kensington High Street, W8 5SA (orange, white)

Website: www.virginlimitededition.com/en/the-roof-gardens/now-closed

Lawns

See Also: ELEPHANTS Mowing

London Parks & Gardens Trust

London Parks & Gardens Trust organises the open garden squares weekend.

Location: Duck Island Cottage, St James s Park, SW1A 2BJ

Website: https://londongardenstrust.org

Motorway Central Reservations

The Department of Transport placed vegetation in the central reservations of motorways on the advice of Eliot Hodgkin, an I.C.I. executive and respected amateur horticulturalist, who was the father of the painter Howard Hodgkin.

See Also: ROADS Motorways

The National Garden Scheme

The National Garden Scheme was founded in 1927 by the Queen s Nursing Institute, a nursing charity, as a funding body. The Scheme became an independent body in 1980, however, it continued to give it financial surplus to benefit health workers and health charities.

Website: https://ngs.org.uk www.qni.org.uk/national-garden-scheme

Royal Garden Parties

The guests at royal summer garden parties are, for the most part, ordinary people from throughout Britain, who have made some form of contribution to society.

Guests have been allowed to take their 18 to 25-year-old daughters since the late 1950s. This was a sop after Queen Elizabeth II stopped the presentation of debutantes at court. In 1993 guests were allowed to take a partner of their choice. There was no specification that the partner had to be of the other sex. The following year the privilege was extended to guests sons in the 18 to 25-age bracket.

In 1996 it was announced that, for the first time since 1972, the London Borough of Hackney would be sending representatives to one of the queen s garden parties. The invitations had been sent annually by Buckingham Palace but the borough council, because of its ardent left wing agenda, had chosen not to send anyone.

Location: Buckingham Palace, SW1A 1AA (orange, white)

Website: www.royal.uk/garden-parties

Westminster Abbey Garden

The garden of Westminster Abbey is reputed to be the oldest walled garden in England.

Location: Westminster Abbey, SW1P 3PA (orange, turquoise)

See Also: WESTMINSTER ABBEY

Website: www.westminster-abbey.org/about-the-abbey/history/abbey-gardens

David Backhouse 2024