Tucked away at the south end of Lambeth Bridge is the former church of St-Mary-at Lambeth. Threatened by demolition in the 1970s, the building was saved thanks to its connection to two outstanding gardeners. This is the place where John Tradescant and his son are buried, both of whom were royal gardeners and who introduced many new plants to Britain in the seventeenth century. The Museum of Garden History that was founded in the 1970s has now undergone another transformation. A major building project has opened up the interior of the church, and the museum has become The Garden Museum.
The museum’s new airy, spacious interior bears little relation to its previous incarnation. Prior to this building project all of the museum’s facilities had been crammed into the single storey church. The reception, shop and exhibition merged into one another, there was little room to sit in the café, and exhibits had to be moved around to create space for seminars and other events. There was also no environmentally controlled space that would enable the museum to borrow objects for temporary exhibitions. Little wonder, then, that on his arrival as director Christopher Woodward decided it was time for renewal.
The new interior was designed by Dow Jones Architects who had the idea of creating a belvedere inside the existing church structure. They have used a timber structure to create a single storey temporary exhibition space at the west end of the church. This space is fully enclosed so that the environment can be controlled. The timber walls of the exhibition space continue around the corner, creating additional storage areas without making the rest of the space feel cramped.
Above the temporary exhibition space and storage areas sits a space that now houses the permanent exhibition and an education room. True to the concept of a belvedere, the permanent exhibition space is open to the rest of the church so that visitors have views over the nave and towards the stained glass windows at the far end. It is reached via a lift next to the entrance, or by the staircase that meanders up to the first floor from half way along the nave. The stairs serve a second function, namely to create a natural partition between the shop and the events space on the ground floor.
This simple architectural intervention in the building has done just what was asked of it. But it does have a downside: the newfound spaciousness of the museum can also make it feel a little empty. The events space is huge, but when there are no events going on it is simply filled with a line of tables on which are lever-arch files containing information on plants and/or press cuttings. The tables look as though they are waiting for executives to arrive for a board meeting, and the space feels as though it’s missing something.
However, the temporary exhibition space makes up for this. At present there is an exhibition about the life and work of Beth Chatto, whose gardens within a garden at White Barn Farm introduced a new way of thinking about plants and gardening in the 1960s. The exhibition space has very simple cases that elegantly display photographs, and Chatto’s notes and books. There is art work by her mentor, Cedric Morris, and comments from those she has influenced, so that Chatto’s work is placed in a brief context of gardening history. The exhibition is very nicely designed, with a good use of large graphic panels showing images of Chatto’s creations, and a sympathetic colour scheme. In addition, for a paltry £2 visitors can buy a nicely produced and detailed catalogue.
Upstairs, the redisplay of the museum’s collection of gardening artefacts upstairs is certainly a refreshing change from the previous display. It is also a very small exhibition, and one can’t help feeling that there is more potential than has been realised. A tiny section titled ‘The Hired Gardener’ points out that the term gardener has ambiguous social status – from labourer to professional. This is a really interesting train of thought, but it isn’t really pursued. There is a case of tools belonging to “gentlemen gardeners” (including an all-in-one walking stick and pruning saw!) but it would be nice to have these put in the context of the trade/profession as a whole.
A similar kind of social context would be useful for other sections. The area on lawn care has some intriguing photographs of people posing with their lawnmowers. They were all taken between 1900 and 1935, and it would be wonderful to know why they were taken.
One thing that is very clear from the exhibition, though not explicitly mentioned, is how little gardening tools have changed through the years. The case titled Oldest Tools contains items dating from 1500 to 1800. Without even reading the labels it is easy to identify shears, watering cans, dibbers and the like. It’s interesting to realise that we may have a more scientific understanding of plants and gardening today, but the tools we use have changed very little over hundreds of years.
Surprisingly there is little mention of the Tradescants. There is a copy of the catalogue of the Museaum Tradescantianuma tiny volume detailing the contents of the Tradescants’ garden in Latin, but that’s it. Perhaps they will be the subject of a later exhibition.
Once visitors have had their fill of gardening exhibits they can wander outside into the museum’s garden. The plants are labelled so that gardeners can take notes. Those whose gardening efforts aren’t always successful can take comfort from the very honest labels that accompany the formal knot garden, which document the trials and tribulations of dealing with dwarf box hedge. It’s refreshing to see that sometimes even professional gardeners run into difficulty.
The redesign of the museum has done exactly what was asked of it and the subtle change in name to the Garden Museum broadens the possibilities for future exhibitions. It’s true that the downstairs area does feel a little empty, and the permanent exhibition could be mined further, but with the addition of a temporary exhibition space this museum definitely feels revitalised.
The Garden Museum, 5 Lambeth Palace Rd, London SE1 7LB
This article was first published in Museums Journal in 2008.
Rachel Souhami 