Autumn 12.Pdf
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The Friends of Holland Park Autumn 2012 Your Committee President Sir Angus Stirling Chairman Stewart Katz Secretary Rhoddy Wood Treasurer Carron Batt Publicity Nigel Brockmann Editor & Minutes Secretary Joy Puritz Talks Organiser Andy Walker Art Exhibition Organiser Gordon French Website Nicholas Hopkins Projects Organiser Jennie Kettlewell Kathleen Hall www.thefriendsofhollandpark.org The Friends of Holland Park is registered as a Charity No. 281348 OUR ADVERTISERS That we are able to produce this quarterly newsletter for members is in no small measure thanks to the continued support of our advertisers. We are most grateful to them all and would ask you to show your thanks by supporting them, please. The Belvedere We are grateful to the Belvedere Restaurant for offering to loan glasses and supply wine at cost for our autumn event and for the Christmas carol concert. We are sure we will enjoy their choice of wine, and having it come from so close by makes the organisation much easier. Crab Apple Jelly London Estate Agent Specialising in Residential Sales, Lettings & Property Jeremiahs have been telling your secretary how none of Management their favourite apple trees are bearing fruit this year. If this dearth does indeed extend to crab apples, then there can We offer a highly personal service, relying on all the traditional be no jelly. Nevertheless, she will check all her favourite values of professional property advice whilst embracing many of the present day technologies and innovations. trees in early October and you are invited to ring her on 020 7602 0304 from 8 October to discover the position. For further information, advice, or help with the selling or letting of your property give us a ring on the telephone number below. Alternatively pop in to our office on Portland Road for a chat. Katy Brennan Sales 020 7727 51 1 1 The cover photo was taken by your Lettings Lucy Hall 020 7727 5222 editor in the Kyoto Garden on 30 October 2009 www.jackson-stops.com 14 Portland Road, Holland Park W11 4LA 2 Ten Years of Wetland The Pleasure Grounds of Holland House When I first visited the London Wetland Centre (LWC) in Barnes it had only recently opened. e Our autumn event is an illustrated talk lakes, ponds, meadows,researching, reedwriting beds, and lecturing walkways on garden and by Sally Miller to mark the publication hides were in place,and landscape but the history. reeds, Having wild flowersmoved from and of her book which was commissioned bushes had hardlyLondon begun to Winchester,to grow. Nevertheless she contributes I bothfelt by The Friends, The Pleasure Grounds of that this was anto oasis. the work In ofsome the Hampshiredirections Gardens you could Trust Holland House. and the London Parks and Gardens Trust see buildings in wherethe distance,she coordinates but alooking group of involunteers others Little has been written about the park you could have whobeen research in the material countryside. for e wa- and pleasure grounds, but Sally has ter birds had wastedwww.londongardensonline.org.uk, no time discovering the a Cen- discovered records to show that they tre and taking itcomprehensive over as if databasethere were of the nothing public out Publicity Nigel Brockmann were laid out by successive owners with of the ordinary parks,in having gardens, such squares, a place historic a greensmere andten taste as well as money, and who were minutes’ bicycle commons,ride from cemeteries Hammersmith and churchyards Broadway. of familiar with some of the finest gardens local historic interest in Greater London. Talks Organiser Andy Walker in England. Changing landscape She has previously published The History of is had been the site of four Victorian reservoirs, e Peakcock Tower (far right) fashions down the centuries were Bishops Park and articles in Garden History reflected in the gardens of Holland made defunct byand the the opening London Gardener of the . ringSally hasmain. family e dream of Sir Peter Scott, the founder of the Wild- Website Nicholas Hopkins House. The original estate, created in whole area was connectionsbulldozed, toduring Notting which Hill dating activity from an fowl and Wetlands Trust (WWT), to set up an urban 1591, covered about 500 acres from unexploded Americanthe 1940s, World and she War lived II there shell briefly was in dis - wetland centre. Although he drew up plans for the Kathleen Hall what is now Holland Park Avenue covered, and a thepair 1970s, of little so Holland ringed Park plovers was a favouritedecided site in Barnes he sadly did not live to see his idea almost to the Thames. Sally’s book to nest right inplace, the andway she of has the enjoyed bulldozers. the opportunity A pro -to come to fruition. Sir David Attenborough, who uses the surviving evidence to create impressions of the tectiveexplore fence itswas history. placed around the nest site, which opened the Centre in May 2000, returned to launch gardens as they would have been seen and experienced in was not disturbed until the young had fledged. the anniversary activities on 26 May this year. each of the four centuries of their existence. Tickets, priced at £12, may be obtained using the enclosed order form, or via the website. The price includes After her retirement Sally Miller gained an MA in is summerwine sourced the from Centre the Belvedere has been Restaurant celebrating and delicious its By creating a broad range of habitats, which even garden history from Birkbeck College, University of first decade,canapés bywith Janice a seriesMiles; and,of special of course, events copies betweenof Sally’s sustain a handful of grazing sheep and Highland London, and is now a professional garden historian May andbook, July. hot offAs thefar press,back willas bethe available 1980s to itpurchase was the at cattle to promote biodiversity, the Centre now at- just £9.99, signed by the author at no extra charge. tracts a huge variety of water birds, amphibians and Christmas Concert small mammals. Bitterns have been visiting for sev- The Tallis Chamber Choir is greatly looking forward to eral years now, and rarities such as the ring ouzel, singing for the Friends in the Orangery in Holland Park Difficult Problems bearded tit and Blyth’s reed warbler have been seen. at 7.30pm on Sunday, 9 December. This annual concert Solved Water voles, grass snakes and common lizards have presaging Christmas will, as usual, include an eclectic been released into the area, and dragonflies and but- mixture of ancient and modern, plus one or two surprises. terflies abound. Sir David Attenborough has described We are not much good around the This enjoyable event is always well subscribed, so do book the Centre as “the ideal model for how humankind garden but… your tickets in good time. These are £17, to include wine and the natural world may live side by side in the and canapés; they can be ordered on the enclosed order form which is also downloadable from the website. 21st century”; and Chris Packham, BBC Springwatch We are specialist property solicitors presenter, maintains that it is “one of the most im- providing advice at the highest level in portant conservation projects of the past century”. Pimm’s in the Park Kensington and Holland Park on Last summer our Pimm’s party was rained on, and so it - freehold enfranchisement and Walking from the car park, or the 283 bus stop, the was on the evening of 18 July this year, except somewhat lease extension entrance to the Centre is across a wooden bridge more decidedly. Once again Park management and - commercial property leading into the Peter hostel manager Sally Martyn-Johns came to the rescue Scott Visitor Cen- with gazebos under which we all cosily congregated in - residential property the youth hostel garden, in true British spirit not at - construction tre which consists of all fazed by something as trivial as the weather. Once a gift shop, selling again we were forced to stand closer to our fellow guests anything from ice than we might otherwise have done, which can only be JOHN MAY LAW creams to binoculars, a good thing; these included Mayor Cllr Christopher 17 KENSINGTON PLACE a café, a “discovery Buckmaster with Mayoress Mrs Anne Hobson, Cllrs LONDON W8 7PT centre”, observatory Deborah Collinson, Johanna Gardner, Tony Holt and and theatre, these Warwick Lightfoot. Trustees had rolled up their sleeves buildings surround- and prepared the jugs of Pimm’s. Our regular caterer and Telephone 020 7792 2900 Friend, Janice Miles, was on holiday, so we were most Fax 020 7792 2941 ing a courtyard list- ing activities on offer grateful to Jidwiji Nasarzewska (‘Jackie’) for providing E-mail [email protected] delicious refreshments. Thanks are also due to Sally Website www.johnmaylaw.co.uk and interesting bird Martyn-Johns for her kind hospitality. e Berkeley Bat House sightings. 3 6 A New Chairman for The Friends We are delighted to report that after is also a trustee of the charity Children in a long search the trustees have invited Need (not the BBC one) and an adviser to Stewart Katz to succeed Nicholas Kids in Museums, as well as a patron to The Hopkins, who stood down from the Kensington Forum for Older Citizens. In any chairmanship at the AGM in March. spare time Stewart is interested in observing Happily, Stewart has accepted and is nature, reading science, collecting minerals and keen to start work. He will be co-opted playing table tennis. formally at the trustees’ meeting in October and will then stand for election ‘Holland Park is really my back garden and at the AGM next year. I visit every week, summer and winter,’ says Stewart Katz, a chartered accountant Stewart.