Garden History

Many thanks to Susan Lynn who has worked very hard to compile this history which spans the first 100 years of our communal garden.

Download the complete History.pdf (650kb) which contains more detail as well as all the images.

In James Wyld’s 1833 map of the “country in the vicinity of London” the piece of land soon to be

The land on which our gardens are laid out and the houses backing on built is acquired in 1852 by

The most obvious difference between now and then is that the houses backing on are, with one exception, occupied by

“At one in the afternoon of 5th January, 1863”, in the offices of Taylor, Stileman and Underwood, of 15 Furnival’s

Looking South from Portobello Farm showing Notting Hill in the distance on the right. The buildings shown are from left

In 1871 OS map showing the development of Notting Hill. The number of “carcase” houses has earned Ladbroke Gardens the

The evidence shows a garden striving to maintain the ideal of an “ornamental pleasure ground”. A loyal gardener plants a

Wage rises and reluctant rent payers mean less labour. While the garden rent remained the same, wages had risen by around 70%

At the beginning of September 1938 the Home Office instructed the borough council to dig exploratory trenches for shelters for

Inside the shelter the four W.C.s are latrines, with two buckets apiece. According to the Local War Instructions of 28th

On 26 th September, 1940, between 1 and 1.15 am a incendiary bomb fell in the garden somewhere near 2

The war and the trench shelter were the “coup de grace” for the concept of an “ornamental pleasure ground” the shelter

When the Council is finally asked to take over the gardens, the secretary had to get the consent of all