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The little-known history of some of London's most intriguing forgotten gardens is uncovered in a new exhibition.
Pleasure grounds, private botanical collections, humble allotments and leafy squares are among the gardens which have been erased from the capital in the past 500 years. Lost Gardens of London at the Garden Museum — curated by landscape architect and historian Dr Todd Longstaffe-Gowan — aims to unearth some of these vanished green spaces, many now given over to new buildings or roads.
One of the gardens brought back to life is that of Somerset House (pictured, top). Both the building and its elegant garden, leading down to the river, will be unfamiliar to modern-day Londoners; a new Somerset House was built from 1776, while the garden is now buried beneath today's Somerset House complex, and the Embankment.
Just across the Thames, another current building covers a long-lost garden; Waterloo station sits on the former site of a large botanical collection, where thousands of plant species were once cultivated. The exhibition allows you to admire this garden once more, courtesy of a c.1787 watercolour by botanical illustrator James Sowerby.
Elsewhere, illustrations from the London Archives explore the history of Surrey Zoological Gardens, which occupied about 15 acres adjacent to Kennington — and were home to a volcano in Victorian times.
Lost Gardens of London is at the Garden Museum, 23 October 2024-2 March 2025. Tickets are £15.
