The Archbishop's Hidden Oasis

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.