The Garden Museum could have been a modern block of flats had it not been for the discovery of a family of famous British plant hunters buried in the graveyard.
Garden writer Helen Gazeley gives her thoughts on visiting...
The Garden Museum reopened its doors last November with a new name and a new interior.
No longer called the Museum of Garden History, it is nevertheless still in the Lambeth church that was saved from demolition in the 1970s when the tombs of the Tradescants, those seventeeth-century plant-hunters, were discovered in the churchyard.
A church works best as—let’s face it—a church and, if you’ve visited in the past, you’ll remember the nave awkwardly filled with display cases. It couldn’t be more different now.
When I visited, the most obvious display was of school children eating their packed lunches. The special exhibition on Beth Chatto (now finished), was shut away behind the ticket desk. The permanent display is perched on a deep balcony high above the nave. The immediate impression was of a vast space with nothing in it. And £6 entrance fee.
So, when I got home I phoned the museum to find out what was going on. Jessica Turtle, Events Manager, explained the new layout. “The space is often used for educational work, evening events (often a lecture format) and hired out as a venue, which is an important source of income.”
The space will also allow expansion of their horticultural programme. This year, as well as the annual Spring Plants and Gardens Fair (April 26th) and Auricula Theatre (April 28th), the nave will be filled with a Lavender Festival, a Wildflower Weekend and A Riot of Roses, when Mattocks Nursery will lay down turf for a massive display.
Which is all very exciting, but where does it leave the casual visitor? The Garden Museum holds 9000 artefacts, so I was disappointed to find such a small area dedicated to the permanent display, even if this will be changed a couple of times a year. Anyone wanting an large array of garden implements and ephemera will be better served by the fascinating Museum of Gardening at Trevarno, Cornwall .
The temporary exhibition space is not much bigger than a fair-sized living-room, probably well suited to the upcoming show, The Highgrove Florilegium but not much space to explore the work of Beth Chatto, the exhibition that had lured me there.
The café serves excellent and imaginative vegetarian food (well worth visiting, but get there early) and the range of books in the bookshop is absorbing, but both can be accessed without paying the entrance fee.
Verdict? In January 2007, Tim Richardson reported in the Telegraph that Christopher Woodward, the curator, has plans for the museum as a hub of ideas, and certainly I felt that there must be a lot going on behind the scenes.
It’s a tranquil space but a long way to go just for the permanent display (no matter where you start from). Even though the entrance fee is reduced to £4 when the temporary exhibition space is closed, I’d advise waiting until there’s a special show on that appeals to you, and even better, a horticultural event in progress as well.
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