Edwardes Square

Our second day of Open Garden Squares started pretty early for a Sunday, since two of today's gardens were only open for a few hours this morning. All in all, we stopped in at a dozen gardens today (nine of which are usually closed to the public), roughly limiting ourselves to an area between Hyde Park and the Thames. We even made two non-garden stops after we were done, although they both ended up being rather whirlwind visits since we were more than ready for some quality time in the living room by that point in the day. Our first two stops were ones I visited during last year's Open Garden Squares, but this was Bob's first time at both places. Although Chelsea Physic Garden was founded in 1673, it's only been open to the general public since 1983.

The garden is a wonderful place for a morning stroll,

for people and birds alike!

(Also bees. Lots and lots of bees.) Many of the benches had dedications on them, although this one struck us as a bit strange:

After all, Country Life English Butter would make one melty puddle if it decided to rest on its bench for any length of time!

Our next stop was at The Roof Gardens, up on Kensington High Street. It's easy to forget you're 100 feet up in the air as you wander around the gardens, but every once in a while the view reminds you where you are.

Nearby Iverna Court Garden was our next destination, and it was wonderful, albeit in a very different way than The Roof Gardens. A small space, the garden is surrounded by tall mansion blocks and an Armenian Church, and makes the most of its shady plot to create a lovely spot for contemplation.

Our favourite garden of the day was Edwardes Square,

three acres of sheer perfection that had us feeling simultaneously lucky we had chosen it from amongst the 170 gardens open this weekend, and sublimely annoyed that the next time it would be open to mere mortals like us was a year away. Like yesterday, we had packed a picnic to enjoy at one of today's gardens, and when we saw Edwardes Square, we knew this was the perfect lunch spot.

This was an unexpected sight:

Doorways cut into the hedges that border the main garden space open onto a shady path that goes all the way around the outer edge of the garden.

Of course there were grass tennis courts--anything else would be uncivilised!

Bob sprawled out in the shade of this fantastic tree, and it took a lot of convincing to get him to leave his idyllic patch of grass.

As we walked to the next garden, we stopped at this tiny spot (you're looking at the whole thing), not because of the garden itself,

but because of the sign in front of the garden:

Now that's dedication. We passed these wonderful murals

on our way to Gledhow Gardens, a rather humble greenspace, especially when compared with the grandeur of Edwardes Square.

Our next destination was at the end of this mews lane:

Bina Gardens East may be small, but it manages to fit in so many interesting details that it feels much bigger than it is. Some of the surrounding flats have entrances right onto the garden, increasing the homey atmosphere of the space.

Hereford Square was only moments away, and has a much more traditional feel. Built for £1,300 in 1848, during WWII the south part of the garden was destroyed by bombing and American soldiers used the space as a baseball diamond.

The house you can see just peeking through the trees on one side of the garden was once the home of James Barrie, and locals like to think that it was a window on this building into which Peter Pan flew to take the Darling children on their adventure:

While I took photos, Bob plotted our next stop,

Wilton Crescent Garden, which hosted some contemporary sculpture for today's opening. All the sculptures are for sale, with the exhibit being put on by Cass Sculpture Foundation, which runs a 26-acre woodland "sculpture estate" that showcases some seventy sculptures at a time.

Today's pieces were Eilís O'Connell's Carapace,

Tim Morgan's Vein

(which gave this view of the garden close-up),

and, our favourite of the lot, Danny Lane's Stairway.

Belgrave Square was another repeat visit for me, but since we've walked past the square many times, I thought Bob would like to see the inner garden that is completely hidden from the street.

Belgrave Square also hosted sculptures from Cass, and we played a bit of hide-and-seek to find them. The easiest to find was Tony Cragg's I'm Alive:

Peter Burke's Small Vessel seemed to owe something to Antony Gormley,

Bob couldn't remember the saying that shares its nouns with Steven Gregory's Fish on a Bicycle,

and two of Sally Matthews's sculptures (Wolf and Sheep) rather ominously interacted with each other in the thick of the trees.

Our next stops were Chester Square,

which once counted Mary Shelley as a resident,

and Eccleston square, which was three acres of swamp until it was planned by Thomas Cubitt in 1828. If we hadn't visited Edwardes Square, Eccleston Square might have ended up being today's favourite, and in any case, it's a wonderful place to while away the Sunday hours.

Winston Churchill used to live on the square:

Once again, Bob made himself right at home.

Our last garden of the weekend was Warwick Square, another Thomas Cubitt design:

The lovely view of neighbouring St Gabriel's Church was part of Cubitt's layout, and remains to this day.

On our way out of the garden, we saw a sign that we don't see every day!

After all that greenspace, it was time for a bit of concrete:

Today was the 2008 Dano Korean Summer Festival--a good excuse to stop at Trafalgar Square for a bite to eat!

Unfortunately, our japchae ended up being disappointingly dry. Bob fancies himself something of a japchae expert, and (rightly) proclaimed it as the worst we've ever had. :-(

By the time we got to the festival, the food booths had sold out of our other favourites, so we settled for the japchae and left the festival with a craving for the wonderful Korean food of New Malden. On our way down into the tube, we noticed the pretty spire of St Martin in the Fields, finally free from the scaffolding that signalled its lengthy refurbishment. It was nice to see it again!

Between getting too much sun and inhaling way too much pollen, we were both ready to call it a day, but knew that if we stopped at home for a rest, we wouldn't leave the house again, and Bob wanted to see the annual phenomenon that is our neighbourhood summer festival, Stokefest. All around the park, people blanketed the grass.

We started to make our way toward the music stages, food stalls, rides, and various commercial kiosks, but the number of people heading the same way as us soon became crushing, so we turned around and headed for the cool quiet of home, dreaming of the tranquility of our beloved Edwardes Square . . . .