London’s Tea Gardens
An essay by William B Boulton LONDON has always shown a disposition to make the best of a short summer and a fickle climate. You may turn to the letters, or diaries, or news-sheets of any period since that of…
London’s Tea Gardens – part 10
An essay by William B Boulton South London, however, was not without its open air attractions, which had a flavour of their own, differing widely from that of the places we have already considered. The attractions of the South London…
London’s Tea Gardens – part 11
An essay by William B Boulton Finally Brompton had its Florida Gardens just west of Gloucester Road, on the south side of the present Cromwell road, a rural retreat with clipped hedges, terraces, and shady walks, "well adapted for gallantry…
“Summerhouses of Sin” Maze and Labyrinth Gardens in History
Labyrinths are an important part of many cultural heritages and mythologies. Unicursal labyrinths — a labyrinth which consists of a path which twists and turns, but which has no dead ends — can be found as rock paintings dating back…
Dairy Farming About London in the 19th Century
Turn of the nineteenth-century London was surrounded by market gardens and agricultural lands. There were approximately 8,500 dairy cattle kept to supply the metropolis with milk, of which most were Holderness cattle, originally from the East Riding of Yorkshire. Each…
Chelsea’s Physic Garden in the mid-1800s
Text taken from Isabella Burt, Historical Notices of Chelsea, Kensington, Fulham and Hammersmith, 1871 Note: What are here called the Botanical Garden at Chelsea is now known as the Chelsea Physic Garden The Manor of Chelsea is a very ancient…
The Zinnia
Victorian gardeners knew of at least nine or ten varieties of zinnia, but the one preferred above all others was the 'coccinea', or scarlet-rayed zinnia. The species was introduced into Britain from Mexico in 1796, the scarlet-rayed variety being introduced…
The York and Lancaster Rose
A variety of the Rosa Damascena, the York and Lancaster rose was a striped damask rose, with green branches and pubescent leaves, commonly found in Victorian gardens. Hibberd does not have much to say about it, being more concerned to…
Yellow Jasmine
While 'somewhat common' in Victorian gardens, the Yellow Jasmine (Jasminum revolutum) was a reasonably new import, having flowered for the first time in Britain in the garden of the Right Hon. Charles Long, at Bromley, in Kent, in 1814. Yellow…