The Garden Museum

Being an enthusiastic gardener, I sometimes think I live to garden, so knew the Garden Museum would be right up my street, and it was, it's a fantastic jewel amid the extremely busy central London setting of the former church of St Mary near Lambeth. They say on their website:

'The Garden Museum explores and celebrates British gardens and gardening through its collection, temporary exhibitions, events and garden.

Visitors will also see a permanent display of paintings, tools, ephemera and historic artefacts: a glimpse into the uniquely British love affair with gardens.
Whether you are an enthusiastic amateur gardener, more of a specialist or someone with a passion for museums, history or architecture, the Museum has something for you.'

The Garden Museum is situated in a former church and churchyard in St Mary-at- Lambeth where the fabulous plant collectors, the John Tradescants are buried, there's a fabulous review of the place by Rowan Moore in the Observer a year ago, written when the Garden Museum had just undergone a massive refurbishment and had a super cafe extension built.
I took a few photos which I hope convey what a brilliant place it is to visit.
I'm going to start with what I think must be the John Tradescant  stained glass window, although I couldn't see any reference made to it:

and next, one of the Tradescant's tombs, rather wonderfully carved with all sorts of things, they were both collectors of 'curiosities'. Both father and son's tombs stand in a courtyard garden designed by Dan Pearson and Christopher-Bradley-Hole

 Beside the courtyard are masses of plant pots and photos of interesting gardening people and gardens

 I love the stained glass windows in there and thought it was worth including a couple of photos.

 Underneath this window is a beautifully wrought needlework type of thing depicting carrots germinating. I haven't got a record of who made it unfortunately, but it's delightful.

 There's a record through photos of some important gardeners and gardens, including Derek Jarman and his legacy of the hauntingly beautiful garden at Dungeness.

 Here's a plan for the Eden Project:

 There are plans for a 'Labour Saving Garden', and 'A Garden of the Semi-Detached House'

 I also liked this advertisement for lots of different styles of garden chair:

There were lots of depictions of gardens in paint, I particularly liked this painting: 'Preparing the Ground' painted in 1920 by Harry Epworth Allen (1894-1958). The scene is thought to depict the making of allotments on land on the edge of Sheffield, the city in which Allen lived. The Allotments act of 1908 set out plots of a sufficient size to each feed one family, and were vital to the diet of industrial communities. The painting was purchased under the HLF's Collecting Cultures scheme.

 This portrait of a black gardener c 1905 by Harold Gilman (1876-1919) is 'one of the most heroic depictions of gardening in art. Gilman was a gardener, and a pioneer settler of Letchworth, the world's first Garden City. Although there were black gardeners at this time, this figure, may however, be an artist's model. Gilman was a radical in politics, which may explain his choice of a black figure. This is the earliest portrait by a British artist to show a full length person of sub-Saharan origin without making their appearance seem exotic'.

 Above 'A View from Spring Grove, Holmfirth, of house and garden' 1979 by Trevor Stubley (1932-2010), and below 'Greenhouse and produce' c 1930 by Paul Nash (1899-1946)

 and to finish with, a couple of photos looking down on the garden museum from the first floor.

As you can see, it's a fabulous place to visit, i nearly forgot that I also loved the video where a gardener talked for about 20 minutes about their love of gardening and their first memories of gardening and where it has taken them. There are 5 gardeners available to listen to, Dan Pearson and Beth Chatto being among them. I listened to Dan, and thought he had many interesting things to say.

Finally I should mention the cafe where the coffee and cake was delicious and I imagine the rhubarb dish they were making would be too.