Lambeth Palace

www.historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list

A 19th and 20th century private garden on the site of a medieval park and gardens.

DESCRIPTION

LOCATION, AREA BOUNDARIES, LANDFORM, SETTING

Lambeth Palace and its gardens of 2.5ha is situated on the south bank of the River Thames. Kennington and Kennington Park (qv) lie 1.5km to the south-east, and Waterloo Station 500m to the north. The clock tower of the Houses of Parliament dominates the views of Westminster on the north bank of the River Thames, c lkm to the north-west. The level site is bordered to the west by brick walls (listed grade II) which separate it from Lambeth Palace Road (A3036). The line of the road was altered in the mid 1960s, cutting into part of the north-west corner of the Palace gardens. Archbishop's Park lies to the east and north-east of the gardens. The buildings on the north side of Lambeth Road (A3203) and the Museum of Garden History, housed in the redundant church of St Mary's, Lambeth, provide the boundary to the south of the site.

ENTRANCES AND APPROACHES

The entrance to Lambeth Palace from Lambeth Palace Road is through the brick gatehouse, Morton's Tower (listed grade I as part of Lambeth Palace), built by Cardinal Morton in 1490. The gateway leads into the outer courtyard with the early C15 Lollard's Tower (listed grade I as part of Lambeth Palace) to the north and the C17 Great Hall (listed grade I as part of Lambeth Palace), restored after the Second World War, to the east. To the east of Morton's Tower, a second archway, under the muniment room, leads into the inner courtyard with the main Palace apartments to the north. To the west of the inner courtyard, against the east-facing wall of the Great Hall is the ancient White Marseilles fig tree reputedly planted by Cardinal Archbishop Pole c 1555. The grass island in the centre of the courtyard, encircled by a tarmac road, is dominated by the stone and bronze memorial to Archbishop Davidson (d 1930), which replaced a less ornate mid C19 monument.

PRINCIPAL BUILDING

Lambeth Palace (listed grade I), the home of the archbishops of Canterbury, has medieval origins, the oldest surviving part being the undercroft to the C15 chapel situated to the north of the Great Hall. The chapel itself was gutted during the Second World War. Restoration was completed in 1955, and, although considerably altered, the chapel retains much of its original Early English style of architecture. The residential apartments to the east of the chapel were rebuilt in collegiate Gothic style c 1835 by Edward Blore on the site of the old manor house, Lambeth House. To the north-west of the chapel is the C15 Lollard's Tower used variously as a water tower and a guard room. Today (2002) the Tower provides accommodation (guidebook).

GARDENS AND PLEASURE GROUNDS

From the inner courtyard a gravel path leads through an arch in the eastern corner of the Palace to the gardens. The present (2002) appearance of the gardens is largely the result of the renovations undertaken by Archbishop Runcie and his wife in the 1980s.

To the south-east of the Palace a tarmac path leads to the stable and dairy (now, 2002, used for service buildings) and the site of the orchard, replanted as the Duchy Garden by Vernon Russel Smith c 1988. From the Duchy Garden a gravel path runs north for c 20m to the north-east corner of the main building where it divides. To the west a wide gravel path runs for 80m between a narrow grass verge along the north front of the building and a rectangular lawn. In 1999 the lawn was decorated at either end with tulip trees and bordered to the north by a long (80m) herbaceous border, planted in the mid 1980s by Beth Chatto against the south wall of the terrace. To the east a lesser gravel path curves around the back of a low grass mound planted with spring flowers; a third path extends north along the length of the gardens, which are mainly taken up with lawn. After c 20m this path crosses the east end of the rose terrace. The rose terrace is first recorded in 1870 (OS) where it appears to be a grass bank sloping to the south. In the late 1920s, as part of Archbishop Lang's garden improvements, the terrace was faced with bricks and planted with herbaceous plants. A newspaper article of the time reported that the garden was in a wild and overgrown condition with masses of privet and weeds abounding on all sides; it goes on to say that anonymous donations had enabled the archbishop, Dr Lang, to renovate the garden (Morning Post, 13 August 1929). In 1986, as part of the Runcies' garden renovations, the terrace wall was raised and the top of the terrace laid out with paving stones and grass and decorated with rose beds. Lang's herbaceous borders to the rear of the terrace were replaced with a row of pleached limes. To the east of the terrace is a small sitting area, laid out c 1988, paved with York stone and decorated with the sculpture of a girl with swallows by David Norris.

From the east end of the rose terrace, the gravel path continues north: mature plane trees line the southern part and cut beds decorate the edge of the open lawn to the west. The path is bordered to the east with wide beds planted out with shrubs and herbaceous plants which as yet (2002) do not screen the high wood and wire security fence which has been erected along the line of the brick boundary wall built between the gardens and Archbishop's Park in the C19. From the northern end of the path there are views south across the lawn to the Palace and to a small, white, C20 open-sided rotunda set on a low mound to the west. A path leads up the mound, planted with spring flowers and ornamental trees, to the rotunda. Other than the mound the main part of the lawn is kept relatively free from decoration and the large open space is currently (late C20) used for summer events. Some 120m north of the rose terrace the long gravel walk turns to the west and runs for c 100m between the lawn to the south and an area set aside in the late C20 for development as a parkland-style garden. Adjoining the path, to the west side of the wild garden, is a late C20 pond. The pond was renovated and replanted in 1995. The path turns south c 5m west of the pond and winds through trees and shrubs along the west side of the garden, passing a Chinese garden to the east. The c 0.25ha Chinese garden was exhibited by Faith and Jeff White at the Chelsea Flower Show in 1987 and is enclosed by brick walls pieced by circular openings. The brick and gravel floor provides standing for potted plants and, to the south, a replica Chinese soldier from the terracotta army found in China in the late 1960s. The Chinese garden is screened to the east by bamboo. The serpentine path continues past the mound on which the rotunda stands and the west end of the rose terrace. To the west of the path are a late C20 garden with a brick and wood pergola to the north and a knot garden with box hedges set against the brick boundary wall. At the south end of the gravel path is a kitchen and herb garden, laid out in 1987. The brick-paved garden with curving box hedges is overlooked to the south by the chapel and Lollard's Tower. To the south-east of the garden the serpentine path joins up with the gravel path which runs along the north front of the Palace.

REFERENCES

A C Ducarel, The History and Antiquities of the Archiepiscopal Palace of Lambeth (1785)

J J Sexby, The Municipal Parks, Gardens and Open Spaces of London (1898), pp 291-294

G Taylor, Old London Gardens (1953), pp 53-59

M P G Draper, Lambeth Open Spaces, An Historical Account (1979), p 47

B Cherry and N Pevsner, The Buildings of England: London 2 South (1983), pp 342-345

Lambeth Palace, guidebook, (1998)

Lambeth Palace Garden, guidebook, (nd)

Maps

J Rocque, Plan of the Cities of London and Westminster and Borough of Southwark and the country near ten miles around, surveyed 1741-1745, published 1746

Hand-coloured print of London of c 1560 taken from Civitas orbis terrarium, 1572 (MS3392), (Lambeth Palace Library)

James Reeves, Lambeth Palace, The Garden and the Park, 1750 (in Ducarel 1785)

Map of the Manor of Lambeth, 1812 (MS3392 Temporalities TD210), (Lambeth Palace Library)

OS 6" to 1 mile: 2nd edition published 1901

1932 edition

OS 25" to 1 mile: 1st edition surveyed 1867, published 1870

2nd edition surveyed 1890, published 1901

OS 60" to 1 mile: 3rd edition published 1915

Description written: June 1999

Amended: September 2002

Edited: November 2003