The Friends of Holland Garden, Wimbledon SW20
© Copyright 2003 - 2010
Email: webmaster
Updated 19 November, 2010
Location & History
Where exactly is Holland Garden? In West Wimbledon, on the southwestern outskirts of London. This Multimap webpage show the Garden and surrounding areas.
Wildlife
The Garden is home to all sorts of creatures. Mammals include gray squirrels, foxes and even a badger has been spotted! Stag beetles have been seen at dusk in past summers.
Origin of the Garden
The Garden was originally fields belonging to Sir Arthur Holland, a local resident and notable figure in the Borough for many years in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
On July 19th 1928, Lady Holland passed the field to the Council to be used as a public recreation ground, as recorded on the inscription upon the wrought iron gate at the corner of Pepys Rd and Cottenham Park Road.
Garden or Gardens?
The inscription on the gate names the land ‘Holland Gardens’. Similarly contemporary press coverage of the civic ceremony at which the land was handed over to the Council dating from 1929 also refers to Gardens. However, in the course of our research we have obtained a copy of the original Deed of Conveyance, the legal document by which the land was transferred. That document clearly and unequivocally states that the land shall be known as ‘Holland Garden’.
Status
The way in which the Garden came into public hands is of interest, as it clear from the Deed that obligations for its upkeep were placed on the Council as a condition of their transfer. We are now investigating the practical implications of these obligations in the context of the relevant law, the Parks & Open Spaces Act of 1906..
The Garden was originally fields belonging to Sir Arthur Holland, a local resident and notable figure in the Borough for many years in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
On July 19th 1928, Lady Holland passed the field to the Council to be used as a public recreation ground, as recorded on the inscription upon the wrought iron gate at the corner of Pepys Rd and Cottenham Park Road.
Garden or Gardens?
The inscription on the gate names the land ‘Holland Gardens’. Similarly contemporary press coverage of the civic ceremony at which the land was handed over to the Council dating from 1929 also refers to Gardens. However, in the course of our research we have obtained a copy of the original Deed of Conveyance, the legal document by which the land was transferred. That document clearly and unequivocally states that the land shall be known as ‘Holland Garden’.
Status
The way in which the Garden came into public hands is of interest, as it clear from the Deed that obligations for its upkeep were placed on the Council as a condition of their transfer. We are now investigating the practical implications of these obligations in the context of the relevant law, the Parks & Open Spaces Act of 1906..