Saturday, 9 June 2012 -
Sunday, 10 June 2012
Open Garden Squares Weekend is organised by the London Parks & Gardens Trust (LPGT), who work to protect and promote London's green open spaces.
In WC1 and WC2 there are 18 gardens you can visit, from the Edwin Lutyens designed town garden at the heart of the BMA headquarters at Tavistock Square to The School of Oriental and African Studies modern Japanese-style roof garden or St Georges Gardens - originally meadowland, the site was acquired in 1713 to serve as the burial grounds for the new churches of St George, Bloomsbury Way and St George the Martyr, Queen Square. These were the first church burial grounds in London not to be sited next to their churches. The first recorded case of 'body-snatching' (the theft of corpses for medical research and teaching) took place here in 1777. Drop by and chat to the Friends of the Garden for more fascinating facts.
History of Open Gardens Weekend
1998 Caroline Aldiss founded the event with the support of the London Parks and Gardens Trust and English Heritage. Around 40 private squares participated. For the first few years, the event was organised purely by an extremely committed group of volunteers and grew organically.
2007 Thanks to development grants from the Heritage Lottery Fund and English Heritage, part-time paid staff were engaged to develop the reach and nature of the event. This investment saw the event grow steadily reaching a maximum of 215 gardens in 2011. The weekend has been supported by organisations such as Loire Valley Wines, Transport for London, Capital Gardens and Evans Cycles.
Today The weekend continues to be run almost entirely by volunteers. A core team sources new gardens and manages the website, applications for the event, publicity/marketing and the production and distribution of the event guide, tickets and publicity materials. Most of the people involved in opening their gardens for OGSW do so voluntarily and there is also another pool of volunteers who spend about half a day welcoming visitors and checking/selling tickets in gardens which need extra help. Any surplus made from the event is divided equally between the participating eligible gardens and the LGPT.
http://www.opensquares.org/en/index.html
In WC1 and WC2 there are 18 gardens you can visit, from the Edwin Lutyens designed town garden at the heart of the BMA headquarters at Tavistock Square to The School of Oriental and African Studies modern Japanese-style roof garden or St Georges Gardens - originally meadowland, the site was acquired in 1713 to serve as the burial grounds for the new churches of St George, Bloomsbury Way and St George the Martyr, Queen Square. These were the first church burial grounds in London not to be sited next to their churches. The first recorded case of 'body-snatching' (the theft of corpses for medical research and teaching) took place here in 1777. Drop by and chat to the Friends of the Garden for more fascinating facts.
History of Open Gardens Weekend
1998 Caroline Aldiss founded the event with the support of the London Parks and Gardens Trust and English Heritage. Around 40 private squares participated. For the first few years, the event was organised purely by an extremely committed group of volunteers and grew organically.
2007 Thanks to development grants from the Heritage Lottery Fund and English Heritage, part-time paid staff were engaged to develop the reach and nature of the event. This investment saw the event grow steadily reaching a maximum of 215 gardens in 2011. The weekend has been supported by organisations such as Loire Valley Wines, Transport for London, Capital Gardens and Evans Cycles.
Today The weekend continues to be run almost entirely by volunteers. A core team sources new gardens and manages the website, applications for the event, publicity/marketing and the production and distribution of the event guide, tickets and publicity materials. Most of the people involved in opening their gardens for OGSW do so voluntarily and there is also another pool of volunteers who spend about half a day welcoming visitors and checking/selling tickets in gardens which need extra help. Any surplus made from the event is divided equally between the participating eligible gardens and the LGPT.
http://www.opensquares.org/en/index.html