London Squared

Before I leave London physically, and interwebly, a couple more images of odd and charming gardens I encountered.

I picked up a brochure called 'Open Garden Squares Weekend', which clearly and unfortunately for me refers to the weekend (12-13 June). London Parks & Gardens Trust opens up more than 200 gardens on 12 and 13 June.

The Trust has a particular interest in 'squares' and communal gardens but some of these are private gardens open for the first time. Anyway, as I said, I can't see them. Instead I took in a couple of similar styled, little gardens.

The picture at the top of the posting is St Dunstan in the East, not far from Tower Hill. St Dustan's doesn't exist any more as a church - it was destroyed during the second world war I think - but the remains form a lovely backdrop for a small garden among your typical city blocks.

Bunhill Fields Burial Ground is a cemetry of course. It houses famous people such as William Blake, but it also has one of the prettiest settings of a cemetry with the gravestones set among some wonderful London Planes and other trees.

The final one is far newer. Barbicon is a housing estate and arts precinct not far from these two other gardens, with some fascinating garden settings between the buidings. This is just one of them. Notice too the flowers in pots along the sides of the buildings.

And finally, not a garden but a quote I'm going to use in my talk on...seasons!...at the Global Botanic Gardens Congress in Dublin. This is from a copy of Dr Samuel Johnson's dictionary displayed in his home in Gough Square, where most of the dictionary was compiled. I had the opportunity to visit here again on my way to other places so of course I dropped in and looked up 'spring'. Actually I knew already what is said from the interweb...