Garden Museum

The Sackler Garden, designed by Dan Pearson as part of the redevelopment project. It contains the tombs of Vice-Admiral of the Blue William Bligh (left) and the Tradescants (right)
The Garden Museum is housed in the former church of St Mary-at-Lambeth, overlooking the River Thames

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.

  1. ^ "Garden Museum opening hours". Garden Museum. Retrieved 22 September 2016.
  2. ^ "Lost churches" (PDF). Diocese of Southwark. Archived from the original (PDF) on 17 February 2017. Retrieved 22 September 2016.
  3. ^ Tradescant Trust (1979) The Tradescant Story (London).
  4. ^ "Museum". Garden Museum. Retrieved 1 August 2017.
  5. ^ "Exhibitions – Garden Museum". Garden Museum. Retrieved 1 August 2017.