Gardener Fanny Wilkinson
The former home of pioneering female gardener Fanny Wilkinson.
Location: 239241 Shaftesbury Avenue, Bloomsbury, WC1A 1BL
Description: Fanny Rollo Wilkinson (1855-1951) was a pioneering landscape gardener from Manchester and chief designer of many open spaces in London. As Britain's first professional female landscape gardener she lived and worked here between 1885 and 1896.
In 1880 Wilkinson managed to persuade the new School of Gardening inside the Crystal Palace in Sydenham to take her on as their first ever female pupil.
In 1883 she was appointed to the Council of the Kyrle Society - challenged to bring beauty to the people.
In 1884 was elected as honorary landscape gardener to the Metropolitan Public Gardens Association (MPGA), creating public parks and playgrounds to create green lungs in poor districts.
Both Myatt's Fields Park in Camberwell and Meath Gardens in Bethnal Green were designed by Wilkinson. Historian Elizabeth Crawford states that she likely laid out more than 75 public gardens for the MPGA alone.
she lived and worked in a flat in this building and both all 3 of her sisters Louisa, Gladys and Jean, and their cook and housemaid, lived here.
In 2022 a blue plaque was erected (look up to find it) and directly opposite is the triangular open space that was laid out to Fannys specific design over 130 years ago. She recommended that if some trees were planted, or seats placed on it, it would be a great boon to this crowded neighbourhood.
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The former home of pioneering female gardener Fanny Wilkinson. |
Ranking This Month: 1960/3062
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pinpointing the forgotten and lost history of London
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