Garden Museum
The Garden Museum (formerly known as the Museum of Garden History) in London is Britain's only museum of the art, history and design of gardens. The museum re-opened in 2017 after an 18-month redevelopment project.[1]
The building is largely the Victorian reconstruction of the Church of St Mary-at-Lambeth[2] which was deconsecrated in 1972 and was scheduled to be demolished. It is adjacent to Lambeth Palace on the south bank of the River Thames in London, on Lambeth Road. In 1976, John and Rosemary Nicholson traced the tomb of the two 17th-century royal gardeners and plant hunters John Tradescant the Elder and the Younger to the churchyard, and were inspired to create the Museum of Garden History.[3] It was the first museum in the world dedicated to the history of gardening.[4]
The Museum's main gallery is on the first floor, in the body of the church. The collection includes tools, art, and ephemera of gardening, including a gallery about garden design and the evolution of gardening, as well as a recreation of Tradescant's 17th-century Ark. The collections give an insight into the social history of gardening as well as the practical aspects of the subject. There are three temporary exhibition spaces which look at various aspects of plants and gardens and change every six months[5] The redevelopment of the Museum, completed in 2017, included two new garden designs. The Sackler Garden, designed by Dan Pearson sits at the centre of the courtyard, replacing the knot garden, and the Museum's front garden is designed by Christopher Bradley-Hole.
In 2006, Christopher Woodward, formerly director of the Holburne Museum in Bath, Somerset, was appointed as the director of the Garden Museum.
Development of the museum
The museum is run as an independent registered charity[6] and does not receive government funding, instead depending on Friends, Patrons and charitable trusts, in addition to income from admission and events. In 2002, its 25th anniversary year, the museum launched a campaign to raise at least £600,000 to pay for a general overhaul of its facilities.[citation needed]
Phase I (2008)
Following a design competition, in 2008, the museum's interior was transformed into a centre for exhibitions and events by the construction of contemporary gallery spaces; the work was designed by Dow Jones Architects.[7] The renamed museum (now the Garden Museum) opened to the public on 18 November of that year.
Phase II (2015–2017)
From 2015 to 2017, the Museum undertook a second phase of work
This phase doubled the space for display of the permanent collection, 95% of which was in store, and created extra space for schools and community outreach work, in addition to a bigger café and modern visitor services.[10] At the core of the project was an aspiration to create the country's first archive of garden and landscape design which is open to the public on appointment. The museum now includes a recreation of "Tradescant's Ark" through the loan from the Ashmolean Museum of the objects which originally belonged in Tradescant's collection at Lambeth, later bequeathed to his neighbour, Elias Ashmole.[11]
The redevelopment also included a viewing platform being lowered onto the medieval tower, allowing the public to access the tower and enjoy the view across the Thames to Westminster for the first time.[12]
In 2020, Dan Pearson designed a new courtyard garden for Garden Museum; his inspiration for this garden came from a number of people who might be considered the modern-day equivalents of the Tradescants.[13]
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Entrance to the Garden Museum
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Part of the permanent gallery
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One of the temporary exhibition spaces
St Mary-at-Lambeth
The Garden Museum is housed in the medieval and Victorian church of St Mary-at-Lambeth.
The church is the oldest structure in the London Borough of Lambeth, except for the crypt of Lambeth Palace itself, and its burials and monuments are a record of 950 years of a community. But for the Palace, it has perhaps the richest historical story of any building in the borough.
In 1062, a wooden church was built on the site by
In 1377, the stone tower was built; it was repaired in 1834–1835, but is otherwise intact and visitors can climb the tower for views across London. The body of the church was continually rebuilt and enriched over the centuries but, decisively, in 1851–1852 the aisles and nave were rebuilt by Philip Charles Hardwick, an architect prominent in the construction of banks and railway stations but not considered to be in the "first rank" of his generation; his father, Sir Philip Hardwick, designed the Euston Arch. It is described by Museum of London Archaeology Service "as an almost complete rebuilding of the old body of the church". The most eye-catching survivals are four of eight corbels in the ceiling of the nave. These are a mix of medieval and Victorian construction.
One of the few 20th-century interventions in the church's fabric took place in around 1900, with the insertion of an immersion font and a baptistery at the base of the tower, said to be one of only two examples in Anglican churches in England.
During the
In 1972, the church was made redundant due to its dilapidation and gloom, and also because of changes in the population settlement of the parish: the area by the riverside had become derelict and under-populated, and the vicar wanted a church closer to where the congregation lived. In 1969, Lambeth Council designated the area around Lambeth Palace as one of the borough's first conservation areas.[14]
Soon after the
St Mary's churchyard and burials
The church was a place of burial until the churchyard was closed in 1854, and the ground level of the site has risen in consequence. It is estimated that there are over 26,000 burials. The prestige of the site is reflected in the wills of many citizens who ordered tombs for themselves, particularly in the chancel. The most significant of these is the chantry tomb on its north wall of Hugh Peyntwyn (died 1504), which is the earliest known example of a new design of wall monument associated with the royal workshops. Opposite is a monument of the same type to John Mompesson (died 1524). The Garden Museum is unique in having two monuments of this type.
The church originally housed the 15th- and 16th-century tombs of many members of the Howard family, including now-lost
Burials outside in the churchyard include John Sealy of the Coade Stone Manufactory and Vice-Admiral Bligh of HMS Bounty fame. The churchyard is exceptional for having Grade II* listed tombs (those of Tradescant, Sealy and Bligh). Lambeth expanded quickly in the 19th century and 15,900 burials are recorded in the two decades after 1790. The churchyard was enlarged in 1814 but was closed in 1854, at a time when other city churchyards were closed by Act of Parliament.
Tomb of the Tradescants
Five members of the Tradescant family are buried here:
The present tomb is the third on the site of the Tradescant grave and replicates the original design. It was restored by public subscription in 1853.[17]
On the east side of the tomb is carved the family arms, on the west side a skull and a seven-headed hydra, on the south side broken columns, Corinthian capitals, a pyramid and ruins, and on the north side shells, a crocodile, and a view of some Egyptian buildings.[17]
The epitaph[17] on the top of the tomb was written by Tradescant's friend, John Aubrey (spelling modernised):
- Know, stranger, ere thou pass, beneath this stone
- Lie John Tradescant, grandsire, father, son
- The last dy'd in his spring, the other two,
- Liv'd till they had travelled Art and Nature through,
- As by their choice Collections may appear,
- Of what is rare in land, in sea, in air,
- Whilst they (as Homer's Iliad in a nut)
- A world of wonders in one closet shut,
- These famous Antiquarians that had been
- Both Gardeners to the Rose and Lily Queen,
- Transplanted now themselves, sleep here & when
- Angels shall with their trumpets waken men,
- And fire shall purge the world, these three shall rise
- And change this Garden then for Paradise.
Local Lambeth legend states that if the tomb is danced around twelve times, while Big Ben strikes midnight, a ghost appears.[19]
Coffins found during redevelopment
During renovation works in 2016, workers uncovered a vault containing 30 coffins, including those of five Archbishops of Canterbury.
References
- ^ "Garden Museum opening hours". Garden Museum. Retrieved 22 September 2016.
- ^ "Lost churches" (PDF). Diocese of Southwark. Archived from the original (PDF) on 17 February 2017. Retrieved 22 September 2016.
- ^ a b Tradescant Trust (1979) The Tradescant Story (London).
- ^ a b c "Museum". Garden Museum. Retrieved 1 August 2017.
- ^ "Exhibitions – Garden Museum". Garden Museum. Retrieved 1 August 2017.
- ^ "Garden Museum, registered charity no. 1088221". Charity Commission for England and Wales.
- ^ "Garden Museum / Dow Jones Architects". ArchDaily. 19 January 2009. Retrieved 21 July 2023.
- ^ "Development Update". Garden Museum. Archived from the original on 17 February 2017. Retrieved 22 September 2016.
- ^ "Garden Museum awarded grant". Heritage Lottery Fund. Archived from the original on 24 November 2018. Retrieved 22 September 2016.
- ^ "Development Project". Garden Museum. Retrieved 1 August 2017.
- ^ "Tradescant Collection". Ashmolean Museum. Retrieved 22 September 2016.
- ^ "Garden Museum – Medieval Tower". Vimeo. Retrieved 2 August 2017.
- ^ "The Garden Museum's Dan Pearson courtyard garden". Gardens Illustrated. 10 March 2020. Retrieved 27 June 2021.
- ^ a b "St Mary-at-Lambeth". Garden Museum. Retrieved 1 August 2017.
- ^ Survey of London: Volume 23, Lambeth: South Bank and Vauxhall. London County Council, London. 1951. pp. 104–117.
- ^ Webster, Nesta Helen (1924). Secret Societies and Subversive Movements. London: Boswell. p. 122.
- ^ OCLC 895432142.
- ^ "Person – National Portrait Gallery". Retrieved 2 August 2017.
- )
- ^ "Remains of five 'lost' Archbishops of Canterbury found". BBC News. 16 April 2017. Retrieved 16 April 2017.
- ^ Brinkhurst-Cuff, Charlie (16 April 2017). "Remains of five archbishops found near Lambeth Palace". The Guardian. Retrieved 16 April 2017.
- ^ "Secret hole in London museum floor reveals stairs to hidden tomb of five archbishops". The Independent. 16 April 2017.