Visiting Garden Museum in London England
Celebratory Exhibitions About British Gardens and Gardening
Feb 1, 2009
Walking briskly from Embankment underground station, taking in the London city sights of the Houses of Parliament, boats on the Thames and the London Eye while crossing the bridge towards Waterloo, visitors are less than ten minutes away from the Garden Museum in central London.
Garden Museum in London
The Garden Museum, close to Lambeth Palace, can be approached on foot from the South Bank promenade or over the Lambeth Bridge. Based in the former St Mary-at-Lambeth parish Church, the Garden Museum has the tomb of the gardeners, to Charles I, John Tradescants, in its grounds. In A Little History of British Gardening (Chatto & Windus London, 2004), Jenny Uglow writes about the plant hunters John Tradescant the Elder (c. 1570-1638), John Tradescant the Younger (1608-62) and how “in 1976, when the church of St Mary on the Lambeth embankment was about to be knocked down, the Tradescant Trust was formed to turn it into the Museum of Garden History”. The Museum of Garden History is now called Garden Museum and remains at home at Lambeth Palace Road, London.
Exhibitions at Garden Museum in London
Professional gardeners, amateurs and their families have donated physical items and documents to the Garden Museum. Archival research can be facilitated by the Garden Museum. Exhibitions on display upstairs in the Garden Museum are refreshed every two to four weeks by staff and volunteers so return visitors can appreciate the Garden Museum as a British gardens and gardening resource. Visitors on January 28, 2009 were able to view the gardening tools exhibitions including the clogs of professional gardeners at Botanic Gardens Kew, home-made hoes and spades from the inter-war period and a history of advertising and lawnmowers.
In the new downstairs gallery of the Garden Museum is Beth Chatto A Retrospective, an exhibition until April 19, 2009 which the Garden Museum describes as “the first ever retrospective of Beth Chatto, one of the most influential living gardeners in Britain… the exhibition will tell the story of Beth’s gardens and nursery.. Key to the story will be her ecological approach to planting and its influence within the gardening world today”. With an excellent narrative, the exhibits of letters, personal and public photographs, journals and botanical art speak to people who have visited the gardens of Beth Chatto and visitors less familiar with her inspirations.
Anne Jennings has edited the Garden Museum Journal, Issue n.21 / Winter 2008 with its focus on Beth Chatto, available from the Garden Museum in London for £2. The issue includes contributions from Diana Ross on Beth Chatto, Nursery Woman, Mary Guyatt, Curator of the The Beth Chatto Exhibition and Thoughts from Gardening Friends including Tracy DiSabato-Aust, Professor Germaine Greer, Penelope Hobhouse, Doug Hoerr, Mary Keen, Dan Pearson, The Dowager Marchioness of Salisbury, Yuko Tanabe and Alan Titchmarsh are included in the Winter 2008 issue of Garden Museum Journal on Beth Chatto.
Visiting Garden Museum in London
The Garden Museum is open Tuesday to Sunday 10.30am to 5pm. Entrance to the museum including the exhibitions is free for full-time students, carers of disabled people and children under 16, £5 for concessions and £6 for adults. The potting shed area between the cafe and the back gardens is the venue for seasonal events and the Garden Museum has a well-stocked bookshop with the latest titles from the Royal Horticultural Society, Dorling Kindersley, Timber Press and other publishing houses.
Garden Museum, Lambeth Palace Road, London, SE1 7LB United Kingdom +44 20 7401 8865. Visitors can become a Friend of the Museum and offer to volunteer in the Garden Museum.
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