Welcome to the Birkbeck Garden History Group web site. The group is interested in studying garden history through lectures, garden visits and exhibitions and in encouraging others to become interested in the subject of garden history. Click on the links along the top of the page to find out more about the BGHG and our activities. Click ‘Follow’ at the bottom of this page on the right to receive alerts when new items are posted.
Repton Revived: a Landscape Gardener’s Legacy and Influence
Thursday 31 January 10 am – 5 pm
The Garden Museum are holding an international symposium in partnership with the Paul Mellon Centre on Humphry Repton. Twelve speakers will explore how Repton’s influence lives on. See https://gardenmuseum.org.uk/events/repton-revived-the-landscape-gardeners-legacy-and-influence/ for further details.
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Coming soon will be details of the BGHG 2019 Garden Visits programme which, following our very successful visit to Yorkshire Gardens in 2017, will include a 3-day visit to a varied and interesting range of gardens in Dorset. Based in Sherborne this is projected to take place 17 – 19 September.
Watch out too for details of a forthcoming BGHG film evening when you will be able to see Turn End: The Home and Garden of Architect Peter Aldington (2017, Director, Murray Grigor; Director of Photography, Hamid Shams). The film received its first screening in London at The Garden Museum in November and will be of particular interest to BGHG members as Turn End is one of two gardens we will be visiting in June this year.
The BGHG AGM will be held on Thursday 21 February 2019
OPEN TO ALL the BGHG Study Day will take place on Saturday 16 March 2019
As the festive season approaches we asked BGHG committee members to recommend a garden-related book: one they think you might enjoy reading or will maybe provide inspiration for a present you wish to give. Here are their recommendations
The Secret Life of the Georgian Garden by Kate Felus (2016, I.B.Taurus & Co. Ltd)
Kate brings the gardens to life by showing what really went on in them at morning, afternoon and night – throwing light on to the attitudes of the owners and users of them. The past times and day-to-day activities are fascinating and sometimes surprising. The book is well researched, with copious end notes; well-illustrated and beautifully written.
Francine Gee
The Lost Garden by Helen Humphreys (2003, Bloomsbury)
A novel set in 1941 about a woman gardener and a neglected garden on a large estate. It’s 1941 and London is being destroyed by the Blitz. A shy young woman gardener leaves the city for Devon, to rebuild the grounds of a country estate to grow food for the Home Front. The people she meets and a beautiful lost garden change her for ever (of course!)
Susan Jellis
Mansfield Park by Jane Austen & other Austen novels
I would urge people to re-read some Jane Austen, in particular Mansfield Park where she actually mentions Repton by name and whole paragraphs are devoted to the improvement of Mr Rushworth’s estate á la Mr Repton (can Fanny Price’s name really be a coincidence or is it also a subtle reference to Repton’s quarrel with Uvedale Price)?
Once you have got your teeth into Mansfield Park, why not go on to read Northanger Abbey where Blaise Castle (Repton worked here), in reality an 18th century folly, is a private joke between Austen and her readers who can relish the ignorance of Catherine Morland.
With the bit firmly between one’s teeth, Repton’s Red book description of Heathfield: ‘the road should be so conducted out of the valley that the house may be concealed by the trees at D till at length it presents itself under their branches’ is pretty similar to the description of Elizabeth’s arrival at Pemberley: ‘They gradually ascended for half a mile, and then found themselves at the top of a considerable eminence, where the wood ceased, and the eye was instantly caught by Pemberley House, situated on the opposite side of a valley….’
Finally, fully in Austen mode, Emma will take us back to Bristol: ‘When people come into a beautiful country of this sort, you know, Miss Woodhouse, one naturally wishes them to see as much as possible; and Mr. Suckling is extremely fond of exploring. We explored to King’s-Weston (next door to Blaise) twice last summer, in that way, most delightfully …’.
Margie Hoffnung
The Lotus Quest by Mark Griffiths (2009, Chatto and Windus, republished 2010 Vintage…)
Not hot off the press but a marvellous read……….
Carmela Bromhead-Jones
DVD: Turn End: The Home and Garden of Architect Peter Aldington (2017, Director, Murray Grigor; Director of Photography, Hamid Shams)
The third public screening of a new beautifully crafted film, Turn End, took place at The Garden Museum in November. Turn End is a group of three houses and a garden in the village of Haddenham in Buckinghamshire, created by Peter Aldington OBE, architect, 50 years ago. Mid twentieth century architecture at its best is on view – the combination of the vernacular with modern building materials to create a house and garden that link seamlessly with each other.
This film may be of particular interest to BGHG members as we will be visiting Turn End garden in June 2019.
The DVD is available from Turn End shop https://www.turnend.org.uk/shop/
Ruth Brownlow
You Should Have Been Here Last Week: Sharp Cuttings of a Garden Writer by Tim Richardson (2016, Pimpernel Press Ltd).
‘You should have been here last week….’ is probably a phrase we’ve all heard at some point when visiting a garden. Often provocative, frequently amusing, and always interesting, Tim Richardson has a refreshing approach to his diverse subject matter. This attractive little book brings together some of his best articles as a columnist as well as articles and essays on specific gardens, places and landscape themes.
Barbara Deason
The Land Where Lemons Grow by Helena Attlee (Particular Books, 2014)
The book’s subtitle is ‘The story of Italy and its citrus fruit’ and I found it unusual and fascinating, and the friends I’ve given copies to have really enjoyed it too. The book combines travel, history, art and food and in researching it the author talked to citrus farmers, nurserymen and gardeners in various areas of Italy and Sicily. It’s very wide-ranging and includes chapters on citrus collectors in Renaissance Tuscany, marmalade-making in Sicily, and the importance for certain Orthodox Jews of a citron grown only in Calabria. The author’s passion for her subject and her love of Italy shine throughout the book.
Sue Coulbeck
A Shakespearean Botanical by Margaret Willes (The Bodleian Library 2015)Beautifully produced, written and illustrated, this will appeal to lovers of Shakespeare, plants and garden history. The scene is set with a concise but scholarly survey of plant references in the context of contemporary developments. Lively essays follow on individual passages, from Henry IV’s aconites to Lucrece’s wormwood, each entry accompanied by an image from Gerard’s Herbal. Excursions into folklore, cookery and medicine contribute to the pleasure: Shakespeare’s world in fifty plants.
Margaret Scholes
Around the World in 80 Trees by Jonathan Drori, illustrated by Lucille Clere (Laurence King Publishing Ltd., 2018)
In this book Jonathan Drori journeys through time and across cultures, using up-to-date plant science to demonstrate how trees play a role in every part of human life. Each of the strange, quirky and true tales is beautifully illustrated. The book is a delightful gift for anyone who loves trees I recently heard the author give an excellent talk at Kew.
Elizabeth Allen
Illustrations from Around the World in 80 Trees
And, while you’re here…..
If you haven’t already got your copy of Repton in London (London Parks & Gardens Trust, 2018), the collective effort of LPGT members and volunteer researchers – including chapters written by BGHG President, Michael Symes, and seven BGHG members, it is still available at http://www.londongardenstrust.org. The book was reviewed in the Historic Gardens Review newsletter in July ‘The London Parks and Gardens Trust has carried out an impressive piece of research into Repton’s contributions to the Greater London area……………a readable and scholarly book, as one would expect from the largest of the County Gardens Trusts’
Viewing Repton Revealed at London’s Garden Museum (24 October – 3 February 2019)
As mentioned in our October post, there is a unique opportunity to view 24 of Humphry Repton’s trademark ‘Red Books’ at the Garden Museum’s latest exhibition Repton Revealed.
A taster of what to expect can be viewed here in a short film in which Jeremy Irons voices Humphry Repton’s own words.
One of the highlights of the BGHG year is the Annual Lecture held every November. Unlike our visits programme, Lectures and Study Days are open to the general public and we welcome anyone interested in the history of gardens and landscapes.
This year our Lecturer will be writer and poet, Tamsin Treverton Jones
Photo:Robin Webster / Storm damage, 1987
For full details of the event and how to book BGHG annual lecture 2018 flyer
Visit our Garden History Lectures & Talks page for details of ‘Drawings and Imagination: How Designers Promote to Clients’ being held at The Garden Museum on 20 November 2018
The Enchanted Garden opens 20 October at the William Morris Gallery, Lloyd Park, Forest Road, Walthamstow, London, E17 4PP
Open Tuesdays – Sundays 10.00 -17.00 Free admission.
This new exhibition explores how contemporaries of William Morris, a key figure in the development of domestic garden design, and subsequent generations of artists, have been inspired by gardens, including Morris’s own gardens at Red House and Kelmscott Manor.
For further information visit http://www.wmgallery.org.uk/whats-on/exhibitions-43/the-enchanted-garden
25 October – Visit to Rousham including lecture and garden tour (members & friends only)
27 November – Annual Lecture: Tamsin Treverton-Jones will give a lecture based on her book Windblown: Landscape, Legacy and Loss – The Great Storm of 1987. (Public event – booking details will be available here soon).
16 March 2019 – BGHG Annual Study Day. (Public event – full details will be available in the Near Year)
Details of a conference, exhibition and film showing at The Garden Museum, a Folly Fellowship Symposium taking place at Lydiard Park, and a Walk on Hampstead Heath have been added to our Outside Events page.
New lectures offered by The London Parks & Gardens Trust, The Garden Museum, and Gardens Trust have been added to our Garden History Talks & Lectures page. Please note that the Gardens Trust Winter Lecture Series this winter starts in December and continues until April 2019.
Two new books due to be published this month, plus a new version of an established classic have been added to our Publications page
