Lambeth – Garden Art, History and Parks in London

Lambeth combines garden art, centuries of history and deliberately designed green spaces. The Garden Museum is housed in a medieval church that was converted into a museum. Lambeth Palace complements this cultural focus with historic rooms and a garden that is among the oldest in England. This creates a London destination where exhibitions, architecture, garden spaces and open parkland can be given different emphasis as part of your trip.

Garden art at the Garden Museum

The permanent collection galleries at the Garden Museum explore the history of British garden art from the 16th century to the present day. The chronological range makes the site particularly interesting if you want to consider not only individual plants or garden forms, but also trace the development of British garden culture over several centuries. The museum gardens add their own emphasis: they include a lushly designed central courtyard, plantings for dry and shaded areas, and a new community garden for growing local produce.

The community garden is located in the Old Paradise Gardens, on the opposite side of Lambeth High Street from the museum. Spatially, it therefore belongs to a different section from the central museum garden and represents a distinct facet of the Garden Museum. The museum gardens are freely accessible during museum opening hours. This allows you to treat a garden visit as a separate focus in your day planning alongside the permanent collection galleries, without equating the two areas in terms of content.

Lambeth Palace and historic rooms

Lambeth Palace is shaped by centuries of faith, art and history. On selected days, visitors can view the Great Hall, the Chapel, the Guard Room and other historic rooms and areas. Access to this part of the palace is therefore explicitly limited to selected days. If historic interiors are important to you when putting together your London itinerary, this site offers a different focus from the Garden Museum: here, the rooms and the palace’s historical character take centre stage.

The garden of Lambeth Palace also contributes to the site’s distinctive character. It covers slightly more than 10 acres and is one of the oldest gardens in England. Together with the history of the palace, it creates a garden setting shaped not only by its design, but also by its longstanding place within England.

Parkland and further orientation

Archbishop's Park was laid out with lawns, a playground and sports fields and opened in 1901. The playground and sports fields create a distinctly different emphasis from the collection galleries, historic rooms and specialised museum gardens. For families with children, the playground is the specifically documented point of reference in Lambeth; the lawns and sports fields additionally describe the open character of this park.

If you would like to compare further London destinations, you can also access the entries Biggin Hill, Wandsworth, Poplar, Chingford, Harrow On The Hill, East Ham, Isleworth and Coulsdon.