A visit to the Old English Garden in Battersea Park

A group of enthusiastic members visited the Old English Garden in Battersea Park last weekend, led by Ruth, who worked there for Thrive, during the period during which it was transformed from a rather overgrown historic site to an award winning and inspirational garden reimagined by a well-known designer.

The original garden was designed by JJ Sexby in the early 1900s and renovated a couple of times in the 1960s and 1980s, during which the lily pond was drained and filled with bedding schemes, the hard landscaping changed to crazy paving and then to the current brick pavers, and the splendid Wisteria pergola deteriorated.

A series of fortunate events in the early 21st century led to the lovely garden we saw on our visit:

• Thrive took over the garden in 2006 and began to run training schemes and volunteer sessions for its maintenance and development
• In 2007, a competition was held for a garden redesign. This was won by Sarah Price, then an up-and-coming designer who had done her first small Chelsea Flower Show garden that same year.
• Then Jo Malone London got involved, sponsoring the garden and enabling a fuller refurbishment led by Price working with Thrive. The huge wisteria pergola was replaced by another benefactor, ready for a relaunch in 2012.
• JML continue to sponsor the garden, and Thrive continue to maintain it and run training and other courses there.

The garden consists of 25 beds, a large ornamental lily pond with central fountain urn, many benches and arches and a sundial. It is quite secluded, with just two gated entrances. A long pergola down one whole side carries the venerable Wisteria as well as climbing roses, star jasmine and other climbers.

Each pair of beds has different planting, but with echoes from the beds nearest them to give coherence to the scheme. There are lots of perennial plants such as Persicaria, Cardunculus, Geranium, Alcea, Phlomis, grasses and bulbs. There is a backdrop of large trees (including a majestic Ginkgo) and shrubs such as Pittosporum. The planting scheme also includes lots of plants associated with the scents used in Jo Malone perfumes: a pomegranate, roses, irises, pears and so on. The pond has effusive lavender framing one end and has a wide range of different waterlilies.

Thrive has a firm foothold in Battersea Park – our focus was the Old English Garden but Ruth also showed us their other gardens: a Herb Garden (actually more of a ‘useful plant’ garden, with medicinal and edible plants as well as herbs) and the Thrive Garden itself which houses the Thrive offices, has plants for sale and includes a newly developed raised bed therapeutic garden. Both were very beautiful and inspiring, with lots of interesting planting.

Battersea Park as a whole was impressive, and impressively well-used – there were runners, rollerbladers, families and friends all using what the 200 acres has to offer. Of course we were mostly interested in the gardens but it well worth a visit to see many of the areas we walked through but didn’t stop to see. There are other gardens in addition to those we saw – I can feel another visit coming on! Many thanks to Anna for organising and Ruth for giving so much of her time to show us round these wonderful gardens.

Ali H & Anna L