The Gibberd Garden

Posted on 24/04/2021 by The Garden History Blog
Sir Frederick Gibberd in cast concrete by Gerda Rubinstein

Wednesday was escape day in north London – the first visit to a garden for many long months. Thank goodness it was sunny, although I think even if it had been pouring with rain the planned escape would still have happened.   And to celebrate we went to the Gibberd Garden on the outskirts of Harlow.   The town might not be the first place that springs to mind for a glorious day out but then maybe you haven’t been to the Gibberd Garden.

The garden was created mainly by  Sir Frederick Gibberd the architect and the master planner of Harlow New Town between 1957 and 1984.  It’s idiosyncratic to put it mildly but is considered such a significant  contribution to garden design  that it’s one of just a handful of post war gardens on  Historic England’s Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest .  

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The English Travels of Cosimo III

Posted on 17/04/2021 by The Garden History Blog

Apologies to regular readers for the false alarm about a post yesterday. I’m afraid there was a slip of the editorial finger when instead of saving the draft of next week’s piece I hit “publish”. It happens even to the best of us but you should have known it wasn’t Saturday morning!

Between 1667 and 1669 Cosimo de Medici,  the 26 year old heir to the Grand Duke of Tuscany, went on two long trips around Western Europe, which included a three month stay in England.   Arriving in Plymouth he travelled by carriage to London calling at  places of interest  on the way, and later visiting several other towns including Cambridge and Oxford.   Despite pretending to travel incognito he had a large retinue, including an artist to record the places he visited and a leading young Florentine scholar,  Count Lorenzo Magalotti, who acted as secretary and wrote an account of his journeys.

Now  in the Laurentian Library in Florence  the manuscript  relating to the trip to England became a popular port of call for the more erudite English visitor on the Grand Tour in the 18thc. As a result 200 years ago in 1821 it was translated into English and published. Copies of the illustrations were made by Thomas Hosmer Shepherd and these  are now in the British Library.  While some parts of Magalotti’s journal are mundane others make fascinating reading and gives an extremely rare narrative insight into the everyday life of the post-Restoration court circle, and well as giving first-hand account of several gardens while  making occasional comaprisons with Italian ones.

Westminster

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Lord Edward’s a-maze-ing portrait

Posted on 10/04/2021 by The Garden History Blog

Discussing this Elizabethan portrait in a lecture recently  I found myself describing the image in the background sometimes as a maze and sometimes a labyrinth and wondering if there is any difference between them?     

In any case what on earth is the maze/labyrinth doing in the background of an Elizabethan aristocrat anyway?

Which one is shown in the portrait and why is it there?

 

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Overlooked? Forgotten? Unseen?

Posted on 03/04/2021 by The Garden History Blog

I gave a lecture for the Gardens Trust recently about Friar Park, the extraordinary house and garden of Sir Frank Crisp.  An eagle-eyed friend of mine got in touch afterwards to ask about one of the images I’d used – the one below with a detail enlarged on the right.  Was it, he asked, a blackamoor statue?  Indeed it is but although I’ve looked at the maps and images of Friar Park over and over again in the last few years I hadn’t really taken much notice.  It was just another sundial in the Dial Garden. Just shows how  easy to overlook things or not to see them. That’s the point of this post.

I’m also going to do something I’ve never done before in the seven years I’ve been writing this blog, but you’ll have to read on to find out what that is!

 

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Alice through the Garden Door

Posted on 27/03/2021 by The Garden History Blog

I was told off last week for writing a “teaser” post by mentioning Alice but not including much about her and nothing about Wonderland but today’s I hope will make up for that.

There are two gardens  at Christ Church which have Alice connections. The first  is the Cathedral Garden which was originally part of the precinct of St Frideswide’s, the  priory shut down by Cardinal Wolsey when he founded his college.

The other is the adjacent Deanery Garden, which was then and remains now the private garden of the Dean, who runs not only the cathedral but is also the head of  Christ Church itself.

What were these gardens like?  Is either of them Wonderland? Continue reading →

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