Red Cross Garden: Southwark’s Secret Sanctuary

So much of London’s history is tied up, not only in its buildings, but in its green spaces.

Its tiny pocket parks in particular often have fascinating stories to tell. I have written about a few of them before: Cleary Gardens with its Roman roots, Postman’s Park with its one-of-a-kind memorial and St Pancras Church Gardens in the City.

Before all of these came Red Cross Garden in Southwark. According to the National Trust it is London’s first ever purpose built pocket park.

It is just a matter of minutes from the Shard, but known of by relatively few people.

Read on for the history of this lovely spot and how some brilliant pioneering women are at the centre of the story…

The History

In 1762 the land where the garden sits was leased by Quakers. They already owned a burial ground here and subsequently built a meeting house on the site. The burial ground was closed in 1794 and the meeting house was used up until 1860.

In 1855 the Metropolitan Board of Works was founded to help provide infrastructure for London’s rapidly expanding population such as new roads, sewers and bridges. They purchased the land from the Quakers in preparation for the construction of Southwark Street through the area.

Southwark’s ‘Open Air Sitting Room’

In 1887 part of the site was bought by Julie, Countess of Ducie, on the advice of social reformer Octavia Hill, to set up a public garden.

Octavia Hill (1838-1912) firmly believed in good quality housing and campaigned for people to be able to access green space for health and wellbeing.

She is best known for co-founding the National Trust 1895 in pursuit of this aim.

Red Cross Gardens was her major central London project. The area of Bankside in the late Victorian period was known for its cramped slums and factories. She wished the garden to be ‘an open air sitting room for the tired inhabitants of Southwark’.

The gardens were originally laid out by Emmeline Sieveking and Fanny Wilkinson, Britain’s first female, professional landscape gardener. Fanny was also involved in the design of other London spaces such as Vauxhall Park and Meath Gardens.

As well as the gardens, Octavia had six cottages and a community hall built, designed by Elijah Hoole.

They were built as model dwellings, demonstrating her pioneering spirit in providing well-designed housing for the working classes. The design is heavily influenced by the Arts and Crafts movement and are Grade II listed.

Octavia was involved in the project well after its inception. For example she attended flower shows here and encouraged tenants to participate in activities in the hall including musical performances and army cadet training.

Paved and Then Saved

During the Second World War, the gardens were paved over and the railings removed, presumably to use their metal for the war effort, as many were in London.

The space remained this way for many decades until, in 2000, BOST (Bankside Open Spaces Trust) stepped in. They leased the land from Southwark Council and restored the original Victorian layout in 2005. The new garden was officially reopened by Princess Anne in 2006.

Today Red Cross Garden is a beautiful green space, continuing to fulfill Octavia Hill’s original aim. If you are ever in the area it is well worth a visit.

BOST also helped establish nearby Crossbones Graveyard as a remembrance garden. You can read more about Crossbones in my blog post here.

Thank you for reading! More of London’s hidden gems below!