Lambeth Palace has the second-largest private garden in London. David Wheeler paid a visit in the company of its head gardener.
Two palaces of supreme national and international importance face each other aslant across the River Thames in the very heart of London. On the west bank, north of the river, between Westminster and Lambeth Bridges, is the Palace of Westminster (aka the Houses of Parliament), where sit Britain’s MPs and Lords. Its architectural Gothic Revival style belies its youth, fooling many a tourist into believing that this mighty mid-19th-century pile dates from the Middle Ages. Across 400 yards of river, glimpsed through the embankment’s plane trees, is a smaller mélange of buildings, added to and modified over a much longer period.
They comprise Lambeth Palace, formerly the Manor of Lambeth or Lambeth House, for nearly 800 years the official London residence of the Archbishops of Canterbury. Far less imposing or prominent than its betterknown neighbour over the water, it nevertheless has superiority when it comes to palatial grounds.
Few passers-by on the busy river or adjacent road know that, behind its brick walls, there spreads London’s second largest private garden: ten acres (Buckingham Palace has 42) continually cultivated for the best part of a millennium – perhaps, therefore, the oldest garden in the land. This exceptional garden is open for a single day this month as part of the National Garden Scheme. I encourage you to visit.
Ten acres is a considerable expanse and is seldom matched or exceeded in an urban setting except by public spaces. However, at the beginning of the 20th century, Lambeth Palace’s gardens were twice today’s size, diminished in 1901 by Archbishop Frederick Temple. He gave half to the people of Lambeth, creating Archbishop’s Park on the far side of the garden’s present boundary, managed these days by Lambeth council.
Esta historia es de la edición May 2017 de The Oldie Magazine.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.
Ya eres suscriptor ? Conectar
Esta historia es de la edición May 2017 de The Oldie Magazine.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.
Ya eres suscriptor? Conectar
Travel: Retreat From The World
For his new book, Nat Segnit visited Britain’s quietest monasteries and islands to talk to monks, hermits and recluses
What is... a nail house?
Don’t confuse a nail house with a nail parlour. A nail house is an old house that survives as new building development goes on all around it.
Kent's stairway to heaven
Walter Barton May’s Hadlow Castle is the ultimate Gothic folly
Pursuits
Pursuits
The book that changed the world
On Marcel Proust’s 150th anniversary, A N Wilson praises his masterpiece, an exquisite comedy with no parallel
RIP the playboys of the western world
Charlie Methven mourns his dashing former father-in-law, Luis ‘the Bounder’ Basualdo, last of a dying breed
Arts
Arts
My film family's greatest hits
Downton Abbey producer Gareth Neame follows in the footsteps of his father, grandfather and great-grandmother, a silent-movie star
Books
Books
A lifetime of pin-ups
Barry Humphries still has nightmares about going on stage. He’s always admired the stars who kept battling on