History Archives - London Parks & Gardens

Wandsworth U3A researchers unearth stories from their local cemeteries

Introduction

Taking the Lower Richmond Road from Putney Bridge towards Barnes you come to the adjoining common lands of Barnes and Putney Lower Commons. This is part of the extensive green corridor stretching from WWT Wetlands in the north through Barnes and Roehampton to Richmond Park and Wimbledon Common in the south.

Sudbrook Park

Of Dukes, Trees and Golf – A History of a lost Richmond landscape – Sudbrook Park

Research Focus. Sandra Pullen of our Research Group has compiled this article based on her work for our inventory of London’s Parks, which is available to view from our webpages.

Sudbrook Park, currently the home of the Richmond upon Thames Golf Club, has an interesting if chequered history. It can be traced back to the early 18th century when John Campbell, 2nd Duke of Argyll, created the estate in the 1720s. At its peak, it totalled a hundred and thirty acres of freehold and copyhold land, with a fine Mansion designed by the Scottish born James Gibbs at its centre. Gibbs spanned the transition between English baroque and Georgian architecture. His work includes St Martin in the Fields in Trafalgar Square and Oxford’s Radcliffe Camera. The Sudbrook estate appears on John Rocque’s 1746 map of London, where it records the owner as Argyll’s widow.

Three Centuries of London’s Playgrounds

The playgrounds in our public parks have a history that is as rich and important as the rest of the landscape, but they are little understood. Landscape historian Linden Groves takes us through three centuries of playgrounds in parks, to tell the story.

Research Focus – Roe Green Park

Debbie Nyman, LPG Research Volunteer and author of Tea & Memories – Growing up in Roe Green Village – questions who is responsible for protecting our heritage, through an examination of the illustrious history and troubled present of Roe Green Park.

Time to Celebrate and Restore London’s ‘Other’ Rivers

Paul de Zylva, Chair of the Quaggy Waterways Action Group (QWAG), tells the story of London’s supposedly ‘lost’ rivers, and how recovering them plays a key role in the fight against climate change and biodiversity loss.

Aske Gardens Renamed

LPG Research Volunteer Barbara Deason describes the history of the recently renamed Joe White Gardens, Hackney.

London’s Commons, Heaths and Greens

LPG Research Volunteer Joan Pateman looks into the history, management and conservation of London’s oldest neighbourhood green spaces.

Landscapes Created by Women Gardeners

Margaret King, Maria Precedo and Jo Roll, from the LGT’s Research Group, select snapshots from five centuries of London landscapes created by women gardeners, illustrators and landscape architects

The Contribution of Migration to London’s Parks and Gardens

Research volunteer Barbara Deason unveils one of LPG’s major research themes for 2023-24

1928 Diaries of Loyal Johnson

Thomas Rutter, a horticultural trainee at the Garden Museum and LGT Research Volunteer, views some of London’s historical green spaces through a different lens with a reading of the 1928 diaries of Loyal Johnson (1904-1999).