thumb|upright=1.08|The Sackler Garden, designed by [[Dan Pearson (garden designer)|Dan Pearson as part of the redevelopment project. It contains the tombs of Vice-Admiral of the Blue William Bligh (left) and the Tradescants (right)]]

thumb|upright=1.08|The Garden Museum is housed in the former church of [[Lambeth Palace#St Mary-at-Lambeth|St Mary-at-Lambeth, overlooking the River Thames]]

The Garden Museum (formerly known as the Museum of Garden History) in London is Britain's only museum of the art, history and design of gardens. The museum re-opened in 2017 after an 18-month redevelopment project.

The building is largely the Victorian reconstruction of the Church of St Mary-at-Lambeth which was deconsecrated in 1972 and was scheduled to be demolished. It is adjacent to Lambeth Palace on the south bank of the River Thames in London, on Lambeth Road. In 1976, John and Rosemary Nicholson traced the tomb of the two 17th-century royal gardeners and plant hunters John Tradescant the Elder and the Younger to the churchyard, and were inspired to create the Museum of Garden History. It was the first museum in the world dedicated to the history of gardening.

The museum's main gallery is on the first floor, in the body of the church. The collection includes tools, art, and ephemera of gardening, including a gallery about garden design and the evolution of gardening, as well as a recreation of Tradescant's 17th-century Ark. The collections give an insight into the social history of gardening as well as the practical aspects of the subject. There are three temporary exhibition spaces which look at various aspects of plants and gardens and change every six months The redevelopment of the museum, completed in 2017, included two new garden designs. The Sackler Garden, designed by Dan Pearson sits at the centre of the courtyard, replacing the knot garden, and the museum's front garden is designed by Christopher Bradley-Hole.

In 2006, Christopher Woodward, formerly director of the Holburne Museum in Bath, Somerset, was appointed as the director of the Garden Museum.

Development of the museum

thumb|The knot garden at the museum in 2015

The museum is run as an independent registered charity and does not receive government funding, instead depending on Friends, Patrons and charitable trusts, in addition to income from admission and events. In 2002, its 25th anniversary year, the museum launched a campaign to raise at least £600,000 to pay for a general overhaul of its facilities.

Phase I (2008)

Following a design competition, in 2008, the museum's interior was transformed into a centre for exhibitions and events by the construction of contemporary gallery spaces; the work was designed by Dow Jones Architects. The renamed museum (now the Garden Museum) opened to the public on 18 November of that year.

Phase II (2015–2017)

From 2015 to 2017, the Museum undertook a second phase of work to complete the restoration of the ancient structure and its transformation into a museum. In 2014 the museum was awarded a grant of £3,510,600 from the Heritage Lottery Fund for the development. The redeveloped museum re-opened in 2017 with more galleries and spaces for education and events inserted into the historic interior in a second, award-winning design by Dow Jones Architects.

This phase doubled the space for display of the permanent collection, 95% of which was in store, and created extra space for schools and community outreach work, in addition to a bigger café and modern visitor services. At the core of the project was an aspiration to create the country's first archive of garden and landscape design which is open to the public on appointment. The museum now includes a recreation of "Tradescant's Ark" through the loan from the Ashmolean Museum of the objects which originally belonged in Tradescant's collection at Lambeth, later bequeathed to his neighbour, Elias Ashmole.

The redevelopment also included a viewing platform being lowered onto the medieval tower, allowing the public to access the tower and enjoy the view across the Thames to Westminster for the first time.

In 2020, Dan Pearson designed a new courtyard garden for Garden Museum; his inspiration for this garden came from a number of people who might be considered the modern-day equivalents of the Tradescants.

<gallery mode=packed heights=160>

Entrance Garden Museum.jpg|Entrance to the Garden Museum

Garden Museum Permanent Gallery.jpg|Part of the permanent gallery

Eileen Hogan Exhibition.jpg|One of the temporary exhibition spaces

</gallery>

St Mary-at-Lambeth

thumb|upright=1.2|St Mary-at-Lambeth

The Garden Museum is housed in the medieval and Victorian church of St Mary-at-Lambeth. The first church on the site was built before the Norman Conquest, and was integral to the religious centre established by the Archbishops of Canterbury in the 12th century. The structure was deconsecrated in 1972, and rescued from demolition by the museum's founder, Rosemary Nicholson. Elias Ashmole (instrumental in the development of speculative freemasonry and founder of the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford) was buried in the church in 1692. Later burials inside the church includes the soprano Nancy Storace and French noblewoman Jeanne de Valois-Saint-Rémy.

Burials outside in the churchyard include John Sealy of the Coade Stone Manufactory and Vice-Admiral Bligh of fame. The churchyard is exceptional for having Grade II* listed tombs (those of Tradescant, Sealy and Bligh). Lambeth expanded quickly in the 19th century and 15,900 burials are recorded in the two decades after 1790. The churchyard was enlarged in 1814 but was closed in 1854, at a time when other city churchyards were closed by Act of Parliament.

Tomb of the Tradescants

thumb|upright|An engraving of 1793, after [[Wenceslaus Hollar, depicting the Tradescants and their tomb]]

thumb|The Tradescant tomb in 2007

Five members of the Tradescant family are buried here: John Tradescant the Elder; John Tradescant the Younger with his two wives Jane and Hester, and his son, also called John, who died aged 19. The original 17th-century design for the tomb is in the Pepys Library, Cambridge, and an image of it may also be found at the National Portrait Gallery.

The present tomb is the third on the site of the Tradescant grave and replicates the original design. It was restored by public subscription in 1853.

Coffins found during redevelopment

During renovation works in 2016, workers uncovered a vault containing 30 coffins, including those of five Archbishops of Canterbury. These included: Richard Bancroft (who oversaw the production of the King James Bible), John Moore, Frederick Cornwallis, Matthew Hutton and Thomas Tenison. Further identified burials were Catherine Moore, wife of John Moore, and John Bettesworth, a Dean of Arches.

References

  • Events and Temporary Exhibitions at the Garden Museum
  • Obituary of Rosemary Nicholson, foundress of the Museum, 26 November 2004, Telegraph
  • Church of St Mary, Lambeth entry at the Survey of London