Garden Museum

The Garden Museum stands in the former church of St Mary-at-Lambeth, beside Lambeth Palace on the south bank of the Thames. The church, first built before the Norman Conquest, was rescued from demolition in the 1970s and turned into a museum of garden history. It is the oldest building in Lambeth, apart from Lambeth Palace’s crypt, and its tower still offers a view across the river to Westminster. The churchyard was redesigned as a garden when the museum opened in 1977, the world’s first dedicated to gardening. The museum holds tools, art and ephemera that trace the social and practical history of gardens. A permanent gallery shows how garden design has changed, and a recreation of John Tradescant’s 17th-century Ark displays objects from his original collection. Temporary exhibitions change every six months, and the archive of garden design gives access to records of leading designers such as Penelope Hobhouse and Beth Chatto. Two new gardens were added during the 2017 redevelopment: the Sackler Garden by Dan Pearson and a front garden by Christopher Bradley-Hole. Visitors climb the medieval tower for views over London, then explore the first-floor galleries in the body of the church. The nave’s ceiling still shows a mix of medieval and Victorian corbels, and a rare early-20th-century immersion font survives near the tower. Outside, the courtyard garden and churchyard plantings link the building to its purpose, while nearby Old Paradise Gardens now includes a community garden created with Lambeth Council.