London Open Garden Squares Weekend June 10 & 11

One of the best and diverse festival events on the London calendar if you ask me.  For �6 you get entry into many of the locked private sqaures, and you're allowed to snoop!

 

Saturday we visited seven gardens around Lambeth and Southwark, from the old bomb site of Bonnington Square which is now exploding with colour, to Lambeth Palace, the residence of the ABC, with rolling lawns, hedgerows, ponds, and honey made from the bee hives. And from the Millenium Garden near Waterloo which has a pretty water feature and a meadow style area, to the Red Cross Garden in Southwark whic has a fantastic story of it's creation in the Victorian era as an open air lounge for the children of the tenemants to play in. Good on you, Octavia Hill! 

We finished up near Tower Bridge on gardens laid out on barges!  These are ancient moorings for barges and a small community have transformed it into an oasis of calm.  It's like a jungle! They achieved so much with very little space.

Sunday was very different, we took ourselves over to South Kensington and visited the many private, otherwise locked gardens.  It's lovely seeing behind the privett hedges, from award winning Bina Gardens, to huge lawns populated by sunbathers and picnickers inNevern Square.

 

In the grounds of a huge 19th centrury church we find Courtfield Gardens (East) with a sunken garden, great climbing frames and tranquil shady trees to rest under before we head off again. We continued east to Cornwall Gardens with some of the tallest trees in London, and Queens Gate Garden with beautiful flowerbeds and the signs of WW2 bomb shelters.

 

Nearing our end, we popped in to the Ismaili Centre by South Kensington station to view their roof garden.  It is an Islamic style lay out with intricate geometric patterns, very calming, especially with the water fountain.  But due to the high numbers of visitors they solitude and peace is lost.  I would love to visit that one agin on my own.

 

Back home to Stockwell, we squeezed in one last garden at the Stockwell Art Studios.  An old maternity hospital, now used as artist studios, big rooms full of the smell of paint and adorned with the finished articles.  The garden out the back was a chaotic wild space with little paths leading you all over to chance upon the odd sculpture and relaxed local enjoying the sunshine. We totalled 14 today, and we were shattered!

 

A great way to enjoy London, just bring your A to Z and wear comfortable shoes as there's a lot of walking involved.