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New Garden Museum takes root inside church
Elizabeth Hopkirk, Evening Standard31 Oct 2008
A MUSEUM devoted to the art of gardening has been built inside a medieval church on the banks of the Thames.
It took just four weeks to build the Garden Museum, using prefabricated wooden panels from Switzerland.
It opens to the public on 19 November in St Mary-at-Lambeth, beside Lambeth Bridge, with a retrospective of Beth Chatto, one of Britain's most influential living gardeners.
The £500,000 gallery replaces the old Museum of Garden History, a much smaller exhibition in the 14th-century church. The new museum is entirely freestanding so that the ancient walls of the church are not damaged.
A collection of delicate paintings, books, postcards and photographs which could not be displayed in the old museum will become the centrepiece of the new one.
It will also host a programme of talks and debates on the future of gardens, designs and ideas. The first season's series is already fully booked.
Garden Museum director Christopher Woodward said: "What's exciting is we are seeing this beautiful medieval church uncluttered and, in a matter of weeks, this new structure rising up inside which we think is really beautiful. It's a ground-breaking use of new building technology. It enables us to put on displays for the first time of our collection of works of art. We will be the first gallery in Britain dedicated to gardens and garden design."
The permanent collection includes photographs of Londoners in their gardens dating back 100 years. There is also space for temporary exhibitions.
The first is the retrospective of Mrs Chatto, known for her pioneering, ecological approach to gardening.
In the Sixties she transformed a patch of waste ground behind her husband's Essex fruit farm into her eponymous garden one of Britain's best-loved The story of its creation is told through private archives, paintings and photographs.
Mrs Chatto, 85, rarely leaves Essex but will be at the museum's private launch on 18 November.
St Mary was a parish church for more than 500 years but after its congregation dwindled it was deconsecrated and turned into the Museum of Garden History in 1977. Its grounds contain the family tomb of famous 17th-century plant hunters the Tradescants, who were gardeners to royalty and some of England's earliest botanists. The new museum was designed by the Wandsworth Common-based Dow Jones practice. They wanted to create a practical exhibition space in the church which would set off the historic building.
Trustees and supporters of the museum include the Dowager Marchioness of Salisbury, The Hon James Ogilvy, Viscountess Rothermere, Tom Stuart-Smith, Lady Tania Compton and Lady Egremont.
Reader views (7)
I agree with Ian,Ms Stele,Ms Slate, Mr Mellor & Mr Bowes. The most interesting thing was the church itself! The exhibits were like those in a village museum. There was little on Garden history and a photograph display was poorly labelled (but this might be the photographer's fault).
I looked through the peep-holes in a plywood construction but saw nothing. As in so many modern museums, the fantasies of the architectural and `Museum Designers' have dominated the need to actually display things, which is what museums are for. They are not to provide a living for `professionals' who will neither visit nor work in the museum. (The Natural History Museum Earth Galleries and Ecology are a case in point in which `design' and `architecture' have overwhelmed the display function of the museum. This museum also no longer wishes to display objects (apart from mammals & dinosaurs) and its Bird Gallery and British Fossil exhibitions are skimpy, and worse than those of may small-town museums (e.g Carlisle) as are its fish and reptile galleries. Do not fall into the same trap! The Wellcome museum, the National Army Museum and Imperial War museum have got it right, and the Science Museum is not too bad.
I am sure that you are all hard-working and not-highly-paid people, and I don't want to be rude.
Perhaps it is still early days and there will be more developments. Sorry, I wish I could be more positive.
- Paul Daley, Bromley (London borough) aka Bromley, Kent, 23/09/2009 17:22
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The new "Garden Museum" is a failure. The exhibition space is now tiny and cramped, and the structure of the gallery now completely obscures the "Tradescant Window" - a very large stained glass window featuring John Tradescant himself. I emailed the Museum with my comments and had such a rude response from the Director that I cancelled my Friends Membership and will never visit the museum again!
- Russell Bowes, London, UK, 23/09/2009 16:22
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I visited the Museum with friends this weekend. They had been before and had been impressed by it. This time I am sorry to say, both they and myself were very disappointed. There was hardly any thing to see in the permanent exhibition - infact it looked as though a few things had been selected at random and just put into cases for cosmetic purposes. The flora pictures from Highgrove were badly hung and exhibited in a very bland way. The exhibition of architects sketches could have been done by a sixth form college. And the rest of the museum seemed to have been given over to exhibiting the vert expensive wooden staircase leading up to the balcony. The whole experience had little do with seeing the history of gardening, but more of a location being promoted for corporate entertainment. The Director should be ashamed of himseld.
- Peta Steel, London, 23/09/2009 16:22
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This is quite extraordinary and regrettable. A wonderful display of vernacular tools and styles of gardening history has been replaced by an impersonal and empty space the purpose of which is not apparent. What was unique has become the kind of space which has no form, character or identity. I am no enemy of contemporary building nor of the use of high end materials but this seems simply crass and pointless. It really is hugely disappointing.
- Ian, Brighton, Brighton, UK, 23/09/2009 16:22
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I was at the museum last year 2008, and enjoyed my day there, only to return this year and see that the building is not quite what I had imagined: also the book collection was great as there was a wonderful choice of books about gardens and such like. Please remove the hoardings or is this the focal point? Good Luck to whoever takes over when the current tenure is over.The gardens look beautiful thankfully they have not been tampered with
- Paula Slate, Santa Barbara, USA, 23/09/2009 16:22
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I applaud the use of the church as a museum, but can't get my mind around getting the wooden panels from switzerland. I hope that enquiries to have these panels made in Britain were made first. We must make sure our own workers are gainfully employed before buying in from abroad.
- Crm, essex, 23/09/2009 16:22
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A total waste of money, I fail to understand how they can justify charging £12 to see a few garden oddments. This once wonderful museum has been given an 'eighties style changing rooms' makeover and has gone from being one of London's hidden treasures to becoming a modern day embarrassment. The make over has obviously been done on the cheap or by somebody who couldn't care less about our history, I would be interested in learning the comments from HRH The Prince Of Wales - a patron of the museum. The only positive points the museum offers is a cracking cup of coffee and some lovely cards in the shop.
- Mark Mellor, Chiswick, 23/09/2009 16:22
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