Walls and wrought-iron gates to the Ravenscourt Park walled garden

Summary

Walls and gates to a walled garden, built in around the early or mid-C18, modified in the late C19.

Reasons for Designation

The walls and wrought-iron gates to the former walled garden in Ravenscourt Park are listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:
* the entrance gates have well-detailed decorative C18 ironwork;
* the attached walls demonstrate good-quality C18 brickwork.

Group value:
* with the adjacent entrance lodge and the nearby remains of the former stable block (refreshment room), it forms a good group of C18 and C19 garden structures which are an integral part of the historic private estate, and were retained and adapted for reuse when it became a public park.

History

Ravenscourt Park was originally the site of a medieval moated manor house known as Pallenswick or Palingswick. The estate was one of three manors in the parish of Fulham, then the property of the Bishop of London. In the C14 it became one of over 56 manors across England owned by Alice Perrers, mistress of King Edward III, and is described in a contemporary account (1377) as comprising 40 acres of land and 60 acres of pasture, with halls, chapels, stables, granges, gardens and orchards. In the mid C18, the estate is thought to have been renamed as Raven’s Court by then owner Thomas Corbett as a pun on his coat-of –arms, which depicted a raven (corbeau in French). A plan of 1754 shows the park in roughly its present form, including walled gardens to the north, and a building in the location of the stable block to the south of the moated house. Before the last private owner, George Scott, bought the property in 1812, the previous owner John Dorville had sold off parts of the estate and filled in three sides of the moat, leaving only the western arm to form a lake. In the late C19, after the death of Scott’s widow, the Metropolitan Board of Works bought the house and estate to convert into a public park. Management of the estate soon passed into the hands of the newly formed London County Council, whose Superintendent of Parks, Lieutenant Colonel JJ Sexby laid out flower gardens, converted the stables into a refreshment room, built toilets, a bandstand and tennis courts. The park was never officially ‘opened,’ although the public were first informally allowed in on August Bank Holiday in 1888, when much work remained to be done. In 1890 Hammersmith’s first public library was opened in Ravenscourt House. The house was demolished after being struck by an incendiary bomb in January 1941.

The walled garden was built in around the early or mid-C18 and was one of two kitchen gardens that served the main house; the other was replaced by houses in the mid-C19. When Ravenscourt became a public park in 1888 the wall on the west side and the western half of the south wall were demolished and replaced by hedging. In the late C19 the south-east corner of the garden was partitioned-off to form the private garden to White Lodge; at a later date a doorway was inserted into the garden wall along Paddenswick Road to provide access to the lodge. The walled garden has been given various names throughout its time as part of the public park, including the Scent Garden and Shakespeare Garden. In around the mid-C20 the interior of the walled garden was laid out with the current geometric arrangement of pathways, pergolas and flower beds; the central statue was added in 2013 to mark the 125th anniversary of the opening of the public park.

Details

Walls and gates to a walled garden, built in around the early or mid-C18, modified in the late C19.

MATERIALS: red and brown brick walls, and wrought-iron gates.

DESCRIPTION: a set of elaborate ornamental wrought-iron gates with scroll detailing, along with an overthrow and side panels, is located in the south side of the walled garden and is flanked by tall brick piers.

There are red and brown brick walls on three sides of the garden. The south wall runs between the gateway and the west end of White Lodge (listed Grade II). The east wall, which runs along Paddenswick Road, is attached to the north end of the lodge and there is a later segmental-headed entranceway which leads into the lodge’s private garden. A wall runs the whole length of the north side. The walls on the west side and the western half of the south side have been removed and replaced by hedging. The internal faces of the walls are supported by straight brick buttresses. There have been piecemeal brick repairs and repointing.

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

201881

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Bird, J, Norman, P, Survey of London: Volume 6: Hammersmith, (1915), 98-113

Websites
The Walled Garden and its Friends, accessed 10 January 2020 from http://www.friendsofravenscourtpark.org.uk/the-walled-garden-and-its-friends/
Ravenscourt Park, accessed 10 January 2020 from https://www.londongardenstrust.org/mobile/stage.php?tour=Hammersmith&stage=14.00

Other
MBW/2564/21, Ravenscourt Park: Plan showing buildings to be removed, 12 December 1888 held at the London Metropolitan Archive

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