> ## Content Index
> Fetch the complete content index at: https://hyperallergic.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further.

# In London's Reopened Garden Museum, Horticulture History Is Told Among Tombs
- URL: https://hyperallergic.com/london-garden-museum-reopens/
- Published: 2017-09-07T13:54:26.000Z
- Updated: 2025-11-24T16:11:58.000Z
- Description: The Garden Museum in London has reopened, showcase a recreation of a 17th-century curiosity cabinet, horticultural art, and the tombs of the deconsecrated church in which it's located.
- Author: Allison Meier
- Tags: Art, London, Museums, Review, #wp, #wp-post, #image-position-hidden, #Import 2025-11-24 07:30(2016, 2017, part 3)

![The recently reopened Garden Museum in London (all photos by the author for Hyperallergic)](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2017/08/gardenmuseumtop.jpg)

The recently reopened Garden Museum in London (all photos by the author for Hyperallergic)

LONDON — Not many museums discover [the graves of five archbishops](https://gardenmuseum.org.uk/the-museum/development-project/archbishops/?ref=hyperallergic.com) during their renovations, but the [Garden Museum](https://gardenmuseum.org.uk/?ref=hyperallergic.com) overlooking the River Thames is unique. Not only is it the world’s first museum of garden history, it’s housed in a deconsecrated church. From the 11th century to 1854, more than 20,000 people were buried inside [St Mary-at-Lambeth](https://gardenmuseum.org.uk/the-museum/history/st-mary-at-lambeth/?ref=hyperallergic.com) and in the surrounding churchyard. So when [Dow Jones Architects](https://gardenmuseum.org.uk/the-museum/development-project/design/?ref=hyperallergic.com) redesigned the interior — newly reopened this May — they couldn’t touch the historic walls or disturb these graves. New galleries and spaces from the 18-month redevelopment are lofted and divided with prefabricated timber, which allows natural light to stream in through the stained glass windows.

While the revamp works around the building’s heritage, it doesn’t ignore it. Memorial plaques in the nave and tombs embedded on the floor are visible alongside the exhibitions of antique gardening implements, contemporary art, lawn ornaments, and a freestanding shed — in which you can watch videos about sheds. At several different stations, visitors can listen to recreations of the voices of the interred dead, including Elias Ashmole, of the [Ashmolean Museum](http://www.ashmolean.org/?ref=hyperallergic.com) in Oxford. A founding collection of that museum involved objects from The Ark, opened to the public by the 17th-century gardener [John Tradescant](https://gardenmuseum.org.uk/the-museum/history/tradescants/?ref=hyperallergic.com), who also rests at the Garden Museum. Tradescant’s elaborate tomb is prominent in the lush, new [Sackler Garden](https://gardenmuseum.org.uk/the-museum/development-project/new-gardens/?ref=hyperallergic.com) by designer Dan Pearson, with pyramids, a hydra, and other carvings on its four sides.

Tradescant’s posthumous presence is why the Garden Museum exists. St Mary-at-Lambeth was abandoned when, in 1976, John and Rosemary Nicholson tracked the tomb of Tradescant and his son John to the crumbling structure. Both Tradescants were renowned for their international plant hunting, credited with introducing plants such as the [horse chestnut](http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/why-britain-has-grown-to-love-the-spreading-chestnut-5330295.html?ref=hyperallergic.com) and [apricot](https://books.google.com/books?id=hTEcBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA152&lpg=PA152&dq=apricot+tradescant&source=bl&ots=Er7E5hWKHC&sig=dV7H9vBq9ISomnb81ES-Vfdxzqs&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjSuf3Bz%5FDVAhUCQiYKHZGXDAEQ6AEIUzAN#v=onepage&q=apricot%20tradescant&f=false) to Britain, and the elder Tradescant served as the gardener for King Charles I. Rosemary Nicholson founded the Garden Museum [in 1977](https://gardenmuseum.org.uk/the-museum/history/museum/?ref=hyperallergic.com), saving the church and preserving this history.

![Vegetable lamb from The Ark](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2017/08/gardenmuseumlamb.jpg)

Vegetable lamb from The Ark

Included in the reopened museum is a new gallery called “The Ark,” which reunites artifacts from the Tradescant museum. At the center of the gallery, there’s a transparent window to a dark set of stairs leading down to that previously unknown crypt of archbishops. On the walls are curiosities, natural and human made, on loan from the Ashmolean Museum and the Oxford University Museum of Natural History. They range from a cast of a dodo’s mummified head, to antlers possibly collected in Virginia, to a most unusual “[Vegetable Lamb](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vegetable%5FLamb%5Fof%5FTartary?ref=hyperallergic.com).” According to 17th-century lore, this was [a half sheep, half plant](https://www.wired.com/2014/04/fantastically-wrong-vegetable-lamb-tartary/?ref=hyperallergic.com) creature, believed to grow in [Tartary](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tartary?ref=hyperallergic.com) (part of today’s Central Asia). The myth may have been inspired by [a woolly fern](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cibotium%5Fbarometz?ref=hyperallergic.com) that is indigenous to China, and looks a bit like a lamb on its back with its legs sticking up (if you were suffering from malaria delirium, perhaps).

The 17th-century Ark is recognized as the first public museum in Britain — accessible to anyone for sixpence entry — and the Tradescants also maintained an influential garden in Lambeth. One of the current exhibitions — [*Tradescant’s Orchard: A Celebration of Botanical Art*](https://gardenmuseum.org.uk/exhibitions/tradescants-orchard/?ref=hyperallergic.com) *—* has contemporary botanical artists responding to a publication that recorded 66 fruit varieties they cultivated. Other sections of the Garden Museum focus on changing trends in gardening from 1600 to today, with patterns for vibrant Victorian flower beds and an 18th-century “red book” that pitched country estate owners a “before” and “after” for landscaping. Also highlighted is the connection of artists to gardens. For instance, Harold Gilman’s “[Portrait of a Black Gardener](https://gardenmuseum.org.uk/collection/portrait-of-a-black-gardener/?ref=hyperallergic.com)” (1905), portrays gardening, and the gardener, as heroic, a rare depiction, not just for the race of the gardener, but in the dignity given to him and his profession. There are innovations like [17th-century Tudor thumb pots](https://gardenmuseum.org.uk/collection/tudor-thumb-pot/?ref=hyperallergic.com), used for gentle plant watering, and some well-worn [pony boots](https://gardenmuseum.org.uk/collection/pony-boots/?ref=hyperallergic.com), designed for ponies pulling a mowing machine, a 19th-century invention that replaced the scythe. (The boots minimized hoof damage on the lawn.) Another current show highlights the art of [Eileen Hogan](https://gardenmuseum.org.uk/exhibitions/eileen-hogan/?ref=hyperallergic.com), who painted London-area gardens as the “artist-not-in-residence” while the museum was closed. 

For a small institution, the Garden Museum has a lot to take in, from the cafe’s new bronze cladding that responds to the layered bark of the adjacent plane trees, to its courtyard garden with a density of unusual plants. Although it might seem like a curious part of urban London for a garden museum — there is more concrete in Lambeth than sprawling green space — it adds some botanical calm to the neighborhood through its indoor and outdoor spaces. And it shows how caring for, and experimenting with plants, has impacted art and museums, and continues to be a bridge between human development and the natural world.

![Installation view of the Garden Museum in London](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2017/07/gardenmuseum07.jpg)

Handlight leaded cloche (1910), used to protect plants from the elements and pests; cat-shaped bird scarer made from tin (1900–20); Vicat hand puffer (1920), used to combat flies and aphids in the garden

![Installation view of the Garden Museum in London](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2017/07/gardenmuseum02.jpg)

Installation view of the Garden Museum in London, with tomb plaques on the wall

![Installation view of the Garden Museum in London](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2017/07/gardenmuseum09.jpg)

Installation view of the Garden Museum in London

![Installation view of the Garden Museum in London](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2017/07/gardenmuseum12.jpg)

Installation view of the Garden Museum in London

![Installation view of the Garden Museum in London](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2017/07/gardenmuseum15.jpg)

Installation view of the Garden Museum in London

![The Garden Museum in London](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2017/07/gardenmuseum05.jpg)

Installation view of the Garden Museum in London

![Installation view of the Garden Museum in London](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2017/07/gardenmuseum17.jpg)

Playground fire engine ride made by Wicksteed Ironworks (1970)

![Installation view of the Garden Museum in London](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2017/07/gardenmuseum19.jpg)

Robert Race, “The Seed Man” (2017), automata

![Installation view of the Garden Museum in London](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2017/07/gardenmuseum20.jpg)

Slide box of specimens mounted by horticulturalist Peter Veitch (1870)

![Installation view of the Garden Museum in London](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2017/07/gardenmuseum21.jpg)

Installation view of the Garden Museum in London

![Installation view of the Garden Museum in London](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2017/07/gardenmuseum22.jpg)

“The Pedlar’s Window” from the original church

![Installation view of the Garden Museum in London](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2017/07/gardenmuseum23.jpg)

The Tradescants’ Orchard (1620–40), watercolors on paper, bound in leather

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2017/07/gardenmuseum25.jpg)

Stairs to the church crypt

![Installation view of the Garden Museum in London](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2017/07/gardenmuseum26.jpg)

Reindeer antlers & skin of its head; cast of a dodo head; both objects from The Ark

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2017/07/gardenmuseum30.jpg)

One of the tomb plaques in the Garden Museum

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2017/07/gardenmuseum33.jpg)

View of the Garden Museum from the courtyard

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2017/07/gardenmuseum34.jpg)

Plaque dedicated to John and Rosemary Nicholson in the Garden Museum courtyard

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2017/07/gardenmuseum36.jpg)

Detail of the Tradescants’ tomb

![Installation view of the Garden Museum in London](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2017/07/gardenmuseum37.jpg)

Courtyard of the Garden Museum in London

![Installation view of the Garden Museum in London](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2017/07/gardenmuseum38.jpg)

Plants at the Garden Museum in London

![Installation view of the Garden Museum in London](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2017/07/gardenmuseum40.jpg)

Outside the Garden Museum in London

![Installation view of the Garden Museum in London](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2017/07/gardenmuseum41.jpg)

Entrance view of the Garden Museum in London

[*The Garden Museum*](https://gardenmuseum.org.uk/?ref=hyperallergic.com) *is now open on Lambeth Palace Road, London.*