London Gardens Online provides public access to a wealth of information on over 2,500 parks, gardens, squares, churchyards, cemeteries and other sites of historic interest across the whole of London. The sites are all on the London Parks & Gardens Trust's Inventory of Historic Spaces, a resource that has been growing since the Trust's formation in 1994, and which continues to be updated.
Criteria for inclusion on the Inventory are those sites whose history dates back at least 30 years and are of significance for their design, landscaping or social history. Many of London's parks and gardens, churchyards and squares are very well known but there are legions of hidden secrets only known to their local communities, and tracking these down has been part of the remit of the Inventory.
Lesser-known fragments of historic landscapes include those at Eastbury Manor in Barking and the Minchenden Oak Garden in Southgate. Most people know of Hampstead Garden Suburb, but what about other pioneering twentieth-century garden villages like the Webb Estate in Purley or Brentham Garden Suburb in Ealing?
Commons like Wimbledon and Mitcham are famous, but there are remnants of old commonland and village greens to be found in inner London, even in the heart of Chelsea. Almshouses and historic allotments also play a part in London's landscape, and all these places deserve recognition.
For further information see > about the project.
The underlying Inventory database now contains over 2,500 sites but it continues to grow, and the website will continue to be updated. If you have any comments, information to pass on, or can provide historical or modern images for any of the sites, please let us know. We would love to hear from you.
For queries or more information, please contact sally.williams@londongardensonline.org.uk
