Gardens City
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The Guild was incorporated in the reign 0: King James L as" The l\Iaster \Vardens Assistanls and Common2.it': of the Com· pany of Gardeners 0: London," Its pri\'ileges ha\'e becll furthe: secured by Royal Charters in the reigns of James I, Chalks] and Edward VII, In 17~~ Thomas Fairchild, a ",dl-known Prepared by Gardener of his time, and six other Liverymen or the Company, claimed to votc in Common Hall. In his mcmory, and according J. W. WHITLOCK, J.P., M.A. to the terms of his \"'ill, the annual Fairchild Lecture i~ still MABTER OF THE WORSHIPFUL COMPANY OF GARDENERS delivered under the Company's auspices in the Church of SI. Leonard, Shoreditch, on the Wednesday in Whit week (preceding the Election Courf;. On 29th Jum:, 163':, Sir Edward Littleton, Recorder, by direction of Sir Nichoias Rainton, Lord J\iayor, issued a v.:arrant for the apDrehension of am' persons using the 1I trade of Gardening il; contempt of the. Compan::'s Charters. To commemorate thi~ tile Comoan\' presents to tile Lord ~vlavor on each anniversary a basket containing specimem of choice flowers, vegetables ane herb" as well as some of the fmits sold by the Freemer; in the earh' davs. Among the mos, treasured privilege:. of the Company ar~ those 0: presemins- the bouquet carrieo by the Queen a: her Coronatior; (replicaE. 0: \\'hich are Printed by order of presented annually 0:"1 the respcctivt: anni\'ersaries tCi Her ?\-iajesty THE CORPORATION OF LONDON Queen ElizabetD and ne:- :.\13.ies:yQuten ~·la;y.'~ ana ofpro\"iding under the direction oj the improvements and Town Planning Committee tho:- brida~ bouque~ or~ tnt m2.:-riz..g: 0: (;.l~oY2.l F:"i:1C~s~: a~ \vas I95J ia..~~cion!'; or, the: nlarriaf.!~ 0: h:~< 1~~y,'2~_I-iigr..nes:, Ti-Jf.:: Princes~ Eliza beth '), [PriCf One Shilling) , , ~ " God Almiphtyfirst planted a garden; and indeed it is thr purest of human ph·aSllrcs." -Sir Francis Bacon. ILLUSTRATIONS AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Page 3. St. Paul's Garden. (From Prof. A. E. Richardson'.r Drawing.) 'The C'ilJ! Gardens Page 4· H.M. the Queen visits the garden made by the Hudson's Bay Company. by Sir Edward Salisbury, C.B.E., F.R.S. (Photograph by kind permission of Mr. Frank Jackson.) Director of the Royal Boianic Gardens, lIelL' 1"11,(' ',. ( ;/mleI! made on a bombed site at Ludgate Hill THEinfluencerepetitiveof humancharacteristicand physicalof historycircumstances,is proverbial:althoughfor neverthe combinedprecisel\" I,), Mr. Ian Walker, D.H.R.O., F.R.H.S. recurrent. brin!!s conditions that ma,' be more effective in their resemb• lances than in theil~difrerences. The vicissitudes of the !!ardens of the Citv of (I·lwl/I.~raj'h Ii)' kind jlermission of Fox Photos Ltd.) London arc no exception. The intrinsic love of horticulture that is so wide• spread amongst us needs but the encouragement of a suitable environment for it to develop and flourish, Page 6. Garden at St. Botolph's, Bishopsgate. Four hundred vears ago the gardens in the City of London were both numerous and notable. For instance, Hugh Platt, the inventor, had, at the end of the fifteenth century, a notable garden in Martin Lane, whilst Hugh Page 7· Port of London Authority new garden. Morgan's garden near Coleman Street was famous in the sixteenth century for (Photograph by kind permission of the Port of London the rare simples that he therein cultivated. Nevertheless, already by the AlItllIl/ilJ'·) eighteenth century, Celia Fiennes was deploring in her diary the replacement of the noblemen's gardens in the Cit\" by streets and squares, It is also with a certain nostalgia that we read in Gerard's Herbal of the Clary growing wild near Gra\"'s Inn, and the Musk IVlallow flourishing on the Executioner's green at Tyburn. :\s the growth of what Cobbett called the" '''''en " accelerated, I'Plg(' 111. (;)11<1(:11 <II SI. Alldrcw's, Holborn. the real countr\" was pushed further and further away and the gardens that (/'lwlo;.:mjJ/1 0' killlljiCflllission of the Argus Press Ltd.) remained in the hean of London became the more precious. Two factors hastened their diminution and decline: these were the increasing value of City land and the augmenting pollution of the atmosphere which accompanied the growing use of ,. Sea coal." Hence at the beginning of the present century. Page I I. Great St. Helen's, Bishopsgate. when " London Particulars" turned da\" into night. the gardens of London had reached their nadir. Page 12. The garden of Messrs. Hodder and Stoughton. The vegetation that spontaneously developed on London's bombed sites during the war, whence the writer recorded no less than t 26 species, was a (Photograph by kind permission r!f Fu,\' Photos Ltd.) demonstration in a spectacular way of the renewed possibilities of plant growth, in the improved conditions of smoke abatement, and history repeated itself in the number of flowers to be found within the City boundaries, though manv of these were wild. To-day we see the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths' Page 13· The garden or Ih(: Worship""1 Company of Gold• smiths. beautiful garden and others occupying bombed areas, and ingenuity rising superior to the claims of streets and building space, by the development of roof f gardens and the cherished care of windowboxes. (l'hologmjih by kind perlllissiolll!flhc Worshipful Compa'!J' r!f Goldsmiths.) So we may hope that history will come full circle and that the city once more wi\] be famous for its gardens as in times past, even though their beauties be of a somewhat different character, and the ancient gardens that persist form but a fraction of the whole. '..•.. ., Under the cross oj gold St. Paul's Garden Thai shineJ over citv and river." • -Tc11nyson. St. Paul's Garden is the most recent addition to the man\" small terraced stone walks screened by pleached lime trees on all sides gardens that enliven the soberness of the City's streets .. except the west; beneath the trees oak benches, line the walks. The centre of the garden is a sunken lawn framed by a lavender hedge and a continuous flower border on three sides. The west end of the lawn Although this Garden was planned so that its opening should coincide with that of the Festival of Britain, it has nevertlll:kss long been the is closed by a stone wall carrying bronze masks from which water flows into a pool flanked by two fountains; the wall and the masks concern of the Corporation of London to give the Cat hcdral a setting worthy of one of London's most distinguished huildings. The are the gift of the Worshipful Company of Gardeners. Above the destruction of this areiJ in the war and the happy I'r(":;ervation of the pool the garden terminates in a semi-circular paved rostrum which is to be fringed with rhododendrons in oak tubs, but during the Cathedral itself presented the opportunity to n:dl~si"l1 1111'vicinity on iJ scale that would not have been practicable Wilh"'11 Ihl' intervention Festival temporary decorations of banners and flags will take their of war. Until the night of loth May J~J4.1,hilildlll).\:. Ilad, for some place. hundreds of years, clustered round the Calhed,'al "xc'''1'1 on its western front; but after the passage of the fires thnl ~w"11(this area, among "Vith its formal design of lawn, flower-beds and paved walks, it not others, during one of the City's heaviest fir!' "H"b, ,III' full grandeur only preserves a fine view of \Nren's masterpiece from afar, but also of V"ren's design stood revealed from the 1;"'111,,,1'1. So fine a view offers to those who work in the City, and to its visitors, a Garden could not be allowed ,') be hidden agaill ~llld II" 1I1:lkingof a garden for enjoyment and rest. The on the curner of Cannon Street and \Vallillf!, ~"I "'1 h,:came part of the sparkle of water from pool and proposals of the Corporation for the gl'II'-I,d \l1"lilding of the City. fountains, and the seclusion 1'''' It is Ihe ultimate intention that the olein ~'II\l11II which is the church• afforded by its encircling trees 1(." yard, will be merged with the new (:~lrd"11 1111"a precinct for the make it a peaceful haven Cathedral. Existing buildings to the s"l1lll ",ill he set back and a amidst thc IIIIS\' tide of City processional route from the river will lit dllv, II Ihrough to the south traffic ... door of St. Paul's. The remaining faI" II "I :01 .• Augustine's church will form a nucleus of a new choir sl'h",,1 I" 1('place that in Carter Lallc and, nearby, new buildings for ('(11111111"1'I.d IIse will be carefully designed to harmonise with their SUITOIII"IIII!,' The whole area will thm lH:eome a spacious and dignifi,:d (:I,lIlf'dnd precinct replacing III(' haphazard growth of past centuri(':., Ncw building is, however, in the prrS("11 ," Cllffistances, slow of achievclnent, and the demolition of oCClIl'wd 1IIIIIdingsis undesirable with so nluch devastation around.