Yesterday I was really saddened to see that Southwood Garden in Central London, has just been brutally redeveloped.
The tiny Second World War Memorial Garden lies to the West of St James’s Church, sandwiched between Jermyn Street and Piccadilly. Last year it was a lush, green, charming space, a little overgrown but all the more magical because of that.
Excuse the clichés but for once they are merited; this was once a genuine “hidden gem” and a real “oasis of peace”.
This is a view from last year:
Today it looks like this:
Once Alfred Hardiman’s statue of Peace was surrounded by mature shrubs, in a “chapel” of leaves:
Today, stripped of her surrounding foliage, she has lost her aura of tranquillity and her ability to inspire contemplation.
She stands before us now as a mere garden ornament.
Shrubs and bushes have been pruned down to the earth, or removed entirely, and the blandest of planting schemes has replaced them.
The magic of the space has been utterly destroyed.
There also used to be lots of unique, hand-painted, little marker signs, scattered throughout the garden, here was the grave marker of “Mackerel” the Rectory Cat for example:
Other signs marked the remains of a (long abandoned) project to grow within the garden every plant mentioned in the Bible:
There was also a sign encouraging people to add a stone to a small prayer Cairn:
Many of these signs were nestled together in one section of the garden.
All of these have been swept away and replaced with hideous picnic benches contained within vile surrounding walls:
Now I’ll happily admit that I am a pretty unsentimental, cynical, atheistic type, but even I am angry and can see that what has been done is just plain wrong and constitutes an act of horticultural, aesthetic and moral vandalism. The destruction seems even more inexplicably insensitive when one considers the purpose of the garden.
The Southwood Garden is a memorial garden, dedicated to “The bravery of ordinary Londoners shown during the Second World War“. It was created as such by Viscount Southwood (whose own ashes lie within the garden) and was opened by Queen Mary in 1946.
Was it really necessary to slash and burn such a special place? If replanting was needed, couldn’t this have been done more gradually? If hard-landscaping work was genuinely required, couldn’t the little markers have been given some consideration, some respect?
Does this look like a distinctive memorial garden to you; or more like a bland, boring lawn, stuck behind some Piccadilly office blocks?
I would be really interested to know why the normally altruistic, effective and truly decent St James’s Church authorities have done this but I could find nobody to ask at the church yesterday.
They do run a market; do they want to rent out more stalls? They do have a High Street coffee concession; do they want/”need” more outside seating for “Flat Latte” drinkers? Hauser & Wirth, the gallery, have a deal with the church to display art works in the garden; do they “need” more exhibition space? Is it all about cash, or is there another even more bizarre reason?
No doubt we will all learn “Why?” eventually.
But the damage has been done now and cannot be undone for a long time. For the next twenty years or so we will just need to wait patiently whilst the garden regenerates and matures. If I am fortunate enough to survive into my late 60′s, then I hope that I can go back to the Southwood Garden (circa 2032) and enjoy it once again.
There are a few more sad, “before” and “after”, photos of the garden on my Flickr Photostream.
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I agree with you that this is an egregious piece of vandalism as unjustified as it is aesthetically impoverished. One can only hope that a happier time will come when this disgrace will be undone and the garden returned to some semblance of its original beauty.
Indeed very sad. I suppose gardens aren’t covered by the listed building protection. Many years ago we collected a few memorials in this garden, http://www.londonremembers.com/memorials/viscount-viscountess-southwood, and found out a bit about Viscount Southwood – on our next visit we’ll have to check the memorials have survived.
I totally agree.
Sadly it seems that all of society wants to go the way of our shopping streets and become bland homogenize spaces.
This is one of the reasons why our insect and bee populations are dying. tidy lawns are dead.
Lets hope flower seeds find their way back soon.
The greenery seemed to make it a special place, a little haven in the midst of all that capitalism. Who decided to pick up all the signs and throw them into the bin? (I’m assuming that’s where they ended up)
As it was it used to be full of crack heads and used syringes. I know because I work nr the garden. It was dirty and not looked after. The improvements have made it more as it should be. A place of calm and respect. It may be different but at least it is clean and welcoming to everyone and hopefully some new. Gardens grow back. Just my thoughts.
Thanks to you all for your comments.
Graham I think we will have to agree to differ. I have never seen a syringe in the garden or any other obvious signs of drug use. It was overgrown but that for me was part of its charm. Anyway what’s done is done. I am confident that the wonderful Phoenix garden won’t be adopting the same landscaping techniques, so I’ll be taking my lunches there in future.
Oh how sad this makes me. I worked in the west end a number of years ago and used to divide my lunch and teatime breaks between lots of little wonderful garden squares and this was one of my very favourite spots.
All I can think is ‘What of poor Mackeral?’. It is good however to hear that the phoenix is still intact, that place saved my sanity more times than I care to think about and holds a very special place in my heart.
I sorry you feel this way about the garden, but I’d like to say a few things in its defence. Firstly its not finished yet, the turf is still protected, new benches have yet to be installed and the planting scheme is only a few weeks old. It’s winter and few of the perennials are even visible yet and the shrubs/climbers/trees are not mature.
Most of the plants removed had virtually zero horticultural or biodiversity merit. Large overgrown Prunus rotundifolia and Fatsia japonica shading out any smaller species and creating plenty of hiding spaces for drug taking (hundreds of syringes collected)and using as a handy urinal. The new planting will attract more wildlife (I saw many queen bees on last visit) and is sustainable in a very difficult dry and shady space. It will be beautiful once mature, but with less height and evergreen mass than before (a practical necessity).
I can assure you no signs were destroyed and careful consultation was had regarding moving anything planted in memory of someone.
The lawn is replacing the existing grass with more shade/drought tolerant species and is in keeping with the parishioners wishes to retain a green space.
I shall stop there, but ultimately I am very proud of what we have achieved with a difficult space and a limited budget. If you still don’t like it in summer in a couple of years then fair enough, but please give it time.