*the “Garden Museum” and the “St. Mary-at-Lambeth” Church-London SE1

THE GARDEN MUSEUM and the St. MARY-at-LAMBETH CHURCH

 

The other week my London Shoes shuffled off to ‘Sarf Landarn’ aka the ‘Dark Side’ – for the specific purpose of visiting a place that, until recently, I never knew existed, let alone ever heard of – the “Garden Museum” in Lambeth-London SE1.

Opened in 1977 the Garden Museum is sited inside the de-consecrated St. Mary-at-Lambeth Church – on the southern banks of the River Thames, right next door to ‘Lambeth Palace’ – a historic building that is the official London residence of the Archbishop of Canterbury.

The Garden Museum looks at the history, the designs and the art of British gardens – and their place in British society and our everyday lives.

The Garden Museum has loads of gardening related artifacts on display, old & new – that map the development of gardens and gardening, plus a look into the science behind some aspects of gardening – from back in the day, right up to nowadays.

It also has masses of old official records among its artifacts, that trace the origins of some of London’s historic ‘Squares’ – of which many of the originals are no longer around due to extensive urban development in the ‘Smoke’. Also loads of old paintings on the museum walls that show how some of London’s old and now ‘lost’ gardens and squares, used to look like.

As mentioned earlier, the Garden Museum is housed in the old de-consecrated St. Mary-at-Lambeth church, right next door to the impressive Lambeth Palace – close by to Lambeth Bridge.

The old St. Mary-at-Lambeth Church is a blog topic in its own rights – and in all honesty, I personally found the history of the church more engaging and interesting than the gardening museum housed inside it.

The first church on the current site actually dates back to BEFORE the Norman Conquest – and apparently it was a pivotal factor in the religious structure set up by the Archbishop of Canterbury.

There are sections of the Lambeth Palace building that date back to 1200 when it was first constructed – but most of the Palace as it is today, was built in stages from the 1400’s through to the 1500’s.

Some of the Church’s records relate to monuments and tombs that were in its grounds and are over 950yrs old – the Church being a real centre of the Lambeth community.

The Church was rebuilt in stone not long after the publication of the Doomsday Book back in 1086.

In the 16^th Century, London’s celebs and top knobs all wanted to be buried in the St. Mary-at-Lambeth graveyard…..it was the place to be laid to rest – its graveyard was full of massive monuments and large tombstones.

In 1638 ‘John Tradescant’ – known to be one of Britain’s most celebrated top gardeners – was buried in the graveyard of St. Mary-at Lambeth Church.

In 1662 ‘John Tradescant Junior’, who sort of took over his father’s role as a celeb gardener – dies and he too was buried at St. Mary-at-Lambeth Church, laid to rest in the family grave

1817 ‘Admiral William Bligh’ who lived just up the road from the Church – is buried in a family tomb in its graveyard.

By 1854 – burials in the St. Mary-at Lambeth Church graveyard, came to a halt, as they did with many other London churches – because quite simply – they were full up, and graveyard land was in precious demand, for building on to house the ridiculous increase in London’s population.

In 1851/2 a big chunk of St. Mary-at-Lambeth Church was rebuilt – leaving the current building a mix of Medieval and Victorian construction.

The Church took a few ‘hits’ during the WW2 bombing of London – damaging some of its stained glass windows an the altar.

By 1950 (post war development) saw most of the Church’s remaining stained glass windows, replaced with just plain clear glass.

By 1972 the Church had become very run down and in need of some urgent serious renovation work. The other big problem at that time was that there were big changes to the Lambeth population and cultural demographic – making the Church no longer a focal point of the Lambeth community – nor that important any more – and as result, St. Mary-at-Lambeth was put up for demolition.

Fast forward a couple of years by 1976 the Church was completely derelict and boarded up – just waiting for the big old ball & chain to knock it all down.

However – it was at this time that a John & Rosemary Nicholas established the “Tradescant Trust” in an attempt to keep the Church standing with a view to transforming it into a museum that commemorated the work of ‘John Tradescant’ the pioneer 17^th Century gardener who lead the way to gardening as we know it today.

The ‘Tradescant Trust’ were made landlords of the now de-consecrated St. Maty-at Lambeth’ and were granted a 99yr lease for the site – and that is how the World’s first ever ‘Garden Museum’ came about.

One of the most prominent visual aspects of the old St. Mary-at-Lambeth Church building (ie the Garden Museum) is its ‘bell tower’.

Records show that a ‘bell tower’ was added to the Church in 1377

This bell tower had to be repaired in 1834, but apart from those repairs, the tower is remarkably exactly the same as it was in the 1300’s !!!

One of the attractions of the Garden Museum is that you can climb the 131 spiral stone steps of the Bell Tower – to the top of the tower from which there’s a fantastic panoramic view of old London town – especially the River Thames. From the top of the bell tower, you can look down on the amazing architecture of Lambeth Palace, the Museum’s next door neighbour.

 

So – that’s all about the Garden Museum for you, the entrance fee is a bit pricey for what it actually (just my opinion) – but the wonders of the interior and exterior of the old St. Mary-at-Lambeth Church, that houses the Museum – and the excellent views from the top of the bell tower – made the visit all worthwhile.

Following a couple of hours ambling around the Garden Museum site – me and Mrs Shoes (aka Angela), my companion for the day – were in need of a little liquid refreshment and perhaps a bowl of chips – and just down the road from the Museum we stumbled upon a lovely pub… ‘The Pineapple’.

The ‘Pineapple’ is a triangular shaped pub with marble columns, that dates back to around 1870. It is divided in to two bars, with comfy seats and wood frames, panelling and cut glass fixtures & fittings – and there was a lovely warm open fire burning away when my London Shoes was there – perfect for thawing me and Mrs Shoes frozen paws and trotters

The pub’s ‘Pineapple’ name apparently comes from the locality in London where ‘exotic’ pineapples were first imported.

After a couple of cheeky Guinness’s and a big bowl of chips in this quality pub – batteries were suitably recharged to handle the trek back home – following an enjoyable and slightly different London Shoes outing and topic.

Hope the blog’s accompanying photos help bring the story to life for you a little

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See below the entire gallery of photos taken to accompany this blog article