If you’ve been reading my blogs you’ll know that for the last 2 years I’ve been going to the Open Garden Squares weekend. One weekend in mid June over 200 usually private gardens in 25 London boroughs open their gates to the public. For the last 2 years we have been exploring the gardens of Chelsea, but this year we decided to visit some of the gardens we hadn’t been to before. Make sure you check out my video at the bottom!

I live in Holland Park, home to many exclusive private squares, so on Saturday we started with those that were in walking distance. Our first stop was Kensington Garden Square, tucked between the shops of Queensway and cafes of Westbourne Grove, surrounded by 5 storey stucco fronted houses. To the North of the garden was a recently renovated row of luxury apartments that had direct access to the square. In the South Westerly corner was the compost store, it was actually fascinating to see how the garden makes its own compost simply by collecting the leaves and dirt that mix together at heats of up to 60 degrees to form natural compost.

Next we crossed the busy Queensway Road (after popping in to have a quick browse in the Kurt Geiger in Whiteleys shopping centre of course!) and headed to Cleveland Square. This square, like most of the garden squares, was kept beautifully by the residents and gardeners with little tables and chairs for dining all set up, a tent selling summer mixers and a children’s play area in the corner. The square is actually part of the ‘Shakespeare in the Squares’ summer events where it will be hosting Much Ado about nothing on Thursday 14th July. http://www.shakespeareinthesquares.co.uk/list

We briefly then had a stroll around Cleveland Gardens which was just next door, a very small but very cute little garden with a beautiful rose tree.

After our lunch in the nearby Kensington Wine Rooms we ventured into the City centre to a garden I didn’t know actually existed! That’s what’s so great about the Open Squares weekend, you can visit these hidden gems that you didn’t even know were there, hiding in the most unexpected corners of London. The square I’m referring to is Park Square NW1 bordering the South of Regents Park and Marylebone Road, you’d actually think it was part of the park. This square was absolutely huge with grass tennis courts, a croquet lawn and a gated children’s play area. In fact the history of the square is very much about the children as beneath the Marylebone Road is the famous Nursemaids tunnel connecting Park Square with Park Crescent where the nannies could cross from one park to the other safely. During the war the tunnel was also used as an air raid shelter. Park crescent is home to two ventilation shafts for the close by London Underground station which also act as benches as well as a statue of the Duke of Kent. Park Square on the other hand has some fabulous flora and fauna to visit including the tropical border containing palm trees and even a banana tree, there’s a weeping silver lime tree and a beautiful tulip tree.

Map of the parks

Nursemaids tunnel

Underground air ventilation shafts

Duke of Kent

Tropical border

Day 2 was Father’s Day so we all took advantage of our 2 day tickets and scoped out some more gardens to visit. The first on our tick list was of course Kensington Square just off high street Kensington where the London Treblemakers were performing at midday, the sun decided to come out just in time too! If you haven’t heard of the Treblemakers, they are an all female accapella group covering a variety of songs from pop classics to musical theatre numbers. One of my favourites is ‘Diamonds are a girl’s best friend’  have a listen to when I interviewed them on my Wandsworth Radio show:  https://www.mixcloud.com/WandsworthRadio/lexie-carducci-thursdayisthenewfriday-21st-april-interview-with-the-treblemakers/

Today we actually had another companion visiting the squares with us in the form of a toy poodle called Snoop who I’m currently looking after for my friend Ashley. Luckily many of the squares allow little doggy visitors, including Rosmead Gardens which is famous for being the garden used in the Notting Hill film. We didn’t climb the gates like Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant nor did anyone have a cheeky kiss on the bench as unfortunately the bench is no longer there, but the slab where it sits is! So naturally I had to have a picture!

The gates to Rosmead Gardens

The spot where the famous Notting Hill bench scene was filmed

The final garden of the day was Ladbroke Square, one of the biggest garden squares and is listed by the English Heritage as Grade 2! It was originally the site of the Hippodrome which was a race course but the mud wasn’t the right consistency and often got stuck to the hooves of the horses. It takes a good 30 minutes to walk around the whole garden as it’s so large but we were well refreshed with teas and home made cakes on the lawn, complete with picnic benches.

So if you like the look of this and are feeling sad that you missed out this year, don’t worry as the organisers have already started planning next year which will take place on June 17th and 18th 2017! Have a listen to Sarah from the Open Garden Squares organisation explain more on my Wandsworth Radio show last Thursday: https://www.mixcloud.com/lexiecarducci/lexie-carducci-wandsworth-radio-16th-june-interview-with-sarah-from-open-garden-squares/

See you next year! http://www.opensquares.org/

Lexie

xxx