Tag Archives: Gardening museum

Free Gardening Museum and a Scary Gnome

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In our second consecutive instalment of fun things to do this weekend, over at the Gardening Museum on Sunday they’re having a Neighbours Day and we think its something that you might just want to get your hands dirty for. There will be workshops on flower arranging and pressing, a crafts workshop, face painting, and live music. Again, no bar but this might be a good thing given that you’ll be surrounded by sharp gardening implements. 

The best part of the day is that the museum itself will be open for free (usually £14) and there will be periodic tours of the exhibits and the beautiful decommissioned church in which it is set. For those who haven’t been, the museum encompasses bedding design, implements, seeds, old lawn mowers, FlyMos, and descriptions of how certain plants were brought to the UK. There is also a small art gallery and you can climb the medieval tower. The garden gnome collection is particularly impressive 

Neighbours Day is on Sunday from 11-4 and is totally free. And by ‘neighbours’ we think they’re liberal in their definition. And this will be your chance, and these chances don’t come by very often, to meet a scary garden gnome that looks JUST LIKE TONY BLAIR. 

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Springtime Fun in Greater Kennington

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Our long Bank Holiday is now a thing of the past and we hope the elements that you actually remember were wonderful. With spring well and truly underway, we have three fun activities to tell you about and the first one takes place this Sunday (24 April) at the Gardening Museum. It’s time for their annual Spring Plant Fair, featuring expert plant growers from around the UK selling their wares for your allotment, windowsill, or garden. In addition to getting to pick their ample brains for advice and tips, the Museum is also laying on talks in areas such as planting in the shade and making your own compost (we might give that one a miss). Time slots are going fast and can be nabbed here. It also includes access to their museum, featuring a creepy gnome that’s a dead ringer for Tony Blair. 

If gardening is your thing, over at the wonderful Vauxhall City Farm on Friday (22 April) from 11 to 3 they are having an open day in their community garden. It is totally free and people will be on hand eager to tell you how their garden has changed over the years, their plans for the future, and how you can get involved as a volunteer. They will offer tips about maintaining a sustainable garden and how to grow your own food at home. 

Moving on to the parallel universe that is Cleaver Square….If your interest/fetish is not so much plant based but focussed squarely on older white men who throw kitchen towels in the air, then we have JUST the thing for you! A large display of Morris dancing will take place on Saturday (23 April) at noon to commemorate St. Georges Day by a group called Greensleeves. We don’t have a great deal of information about this happening but there are signs about it everywhere. Whether its men throwing things, a tipsy Vicar acting as MC, or a totally inappropriate Punch and Judy show, we can always rely on our friends in Cleaver Square for a laugh. 

If you want to discover more about Greensleeves then look no further than their extremely comprehensive and *coughs* handy website.

The last great epidemic of Greater Kennington

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History has an unusual system of circularity, and The Event that has engulfed the world is in many respects very similar to one experienced in early Victorian Greater Kennington. So bring those sparklingly clean hands forward boys and girls, as we are going to tell you about another misunderstood epidemic borne out of a need for greater hygiene. 

In the first half of the nineteenth century Lambeth’s waterfront was the industrial hub of London, with factories  such Royal Doulton lining the waterfront between Black Prince Road and Spring Gardens and disgorging pollutants into the air and water. The area behind the factories was populated primary by migrants from the countryside and a famine stricken Ireland (and now ironically populated by multizillion pound flats, but moving on..) who struggled for survival and lacked basic sanitation. As the area was built haphazardly on damp marshland (this was before the embankment of the Thames) there were no standpipes for water and the folks had no choice but to obtain their drinking water directly from the Thames. And we’ll leave it up to you to imagine what kinds of matter were deposited in the river at the time.

The Thames was the source of contagion when cholera struck Lambeth in October, 1848, resulting in the death of almost 2000 local men, women and children. At the time it was believed that cholera was transmitted through the air in foul smells, and foul smells were abundant in this industrial wasteland. Our patch of Lambeth was one of the first places studied by pioneering epidemiologist John Snow (no, not that one) who, after seeing people dipping pails into the river for drinking water, began his path to discovering that cholera was a water borne illness. Proof that science can prevail in times of darkness. 

A headstone of the time of cholera

Of the people who perished, many were buried in unmarked graves in the cemetery of St. Mary’s church (now the Gardening Museum). The graveyard is now Old Paradise Park and is a little gem of solitude behind the high rises. On your daily and now unlimited walk stop to notice the headstones of the many residents of Lambeth who were contemporaries of those 2000 who perished, but who had a more dignified send off.  And in the middle of Paradise Gardens you’ll encounter a solitary standpipe, which acts as a fitting monument to those buried beneath it.