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St George's Gardens, Bloomsbury (also known as St George Bloomsbury Burial Ground, Martyr Burial Ground)

Introduction

The site originated as a burial ground designed by Nicholas Hawksmoor, which opened in 1715 and closed for burials in 1855. In 1885 two adjoining burial grounds, those of St George's Bloomsbury and of St George the Martyr, were combined and opened as a public garden designed by William Holmes. The garden was restored under the Urban Parks programme between 1997 and 2001. The present garden covers about 1 hectare and contains a variety of fern species.

Terrain

Level

The following is from the Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest. For the most up-to-date Register entry, please visit the The National Heritage List for England (NHLE):

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

Early C18 burial ground, laid out as public gardens in the C19.

DESCRIPTION

LOCATION, AREA, BOUNDARIES, LANDFORM, SETTING

St George's Gardens, c 1ha, are located to the north of Coram's Fields and west of Gray's Inn Road, on the eastern edge of Bloomsbury. The gardens are on level ground and are rectangular in shape but with the south-west quarter (a disused cemetery) now divided off. The gardens are enclosed by early C18 brick walls on the south, west and north sides and by a mesh fence on the east side, and are surrounded by the buildings in the surrounding streets to the north and west, by a school to the east and by the Coram's Foundation to the south.

ENTRANCES AND APPROACHES

The main entrance to the gardens is from Handel Street to the west, through gates flanked by cast-iron railings with spearhead finials and served by an early C19 one-storey lodge (listed grade II with the walls and monuments) to the south of the gate. There are two further entrances, one from Sidmouth Street to the north-east and one from Heathcote Street to the south-east.

GARDENS AND PLEASURE GROUNDS

On entering the gardens from the main entrance to the west there are steps descending to the gardens, with views through to the far side. The gardens are laid out as lawn, with scattered mature trees including plane, lime, oak, catalpa and weeping ash. Amongst the trees on the grass are C18 table tombs, including the tomb of Robert Nelson, an obelisk, an urn and other large monuments, left in their original positions and reminiscent of the Avenue of the Tombs, Pompeii.

To the south of the entrance is the lodge and south of this, beyond the boundary of the gardens, is the nursery and glasshouse for the garden and the disused cemetery (formerly part of the burial grounds but separated from the rest of the grounds in the 1880s).

Against the north and south boundary walls are shrubberies and most of the gravestones, which were repositioned when the gardens were laid out.

Paths meander through the gardens, leading through an area of formal bedding in the western portion, to the centre, where the grounds are their original width (double that of the western portion). Most of the large table tombs are located in this area and the obelisk is located in the south-west corner, near the southern boundary wall of the St George-the-Martyr burial ground.

To the east the wall has been demolished and the mesh fence gives views over to the school beyond. In the north-east corner of the gardens, close to the Sidmouth Street entrance there is an area of rose beds.

REFERENCES

LCC, Survey of London XXIV, (1952), pp 72-9, pl 66

D J Olsen, Town Planning in London (1982 edn)

B Cherry and N Pevsner, The Buildings of England: London 4: North (1998), p 263

R Bowdler, 'St George's Gardens', The London Gardener: 9 (2003-4), pp 38-43

Maps

John Rocque, Plan of the Cities of London and Westminster ..., 1744-6

Richard Horwood, Plan of the Cities of London and Westminster, 2nd edn 1813

Wallis, Guide for Strangers, 1828

OS 25" to 1 mile: 1st edition surveyed 1871

2nd edition published 1894

3rd edition published 1913

Description written: August 1998

Register Inspector: CB

Edited: May 2000

Amended April 2005

Visitor Access, Directions & Contacts

Access contact details

This is a municipal site, open daily for general public use.

Directions

Tube: Russell Square (Piccadilly); King's Cross (Northern, Piccadilly, Victoria, Hammersmith & City, Metropolitan, Circle). Bus: 17, 45, 46; 68, 91, 168, 188.

Owners

St George's Bloomsbury, leased to LB Camden

Other Websites

History

The following is from the Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest. For the most up-to-date Register entry, please visit the The National Heritage List for England (NHLE):

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

HISTORIC DEVELOPMENT

The centre of London became densely populated during the C17, resulting in severe congestion in the small parish churchyards. The burial practices became so troublesome and unhygienic that major reforms were introduced. The inner London parishes established burial grounds removed from the churches, in what was then open fields, on the edge of the built-up areas.

A rectangular parcel of land was purchased in August 1713 to serve as burial grounds for the churches of St George-the-Martyr, Holborn, and St George's, Bloomsbury. The land was laid out in c 1713 as two separate burial grounds, both surrounded by red-brick walls with capped piers. The burial ground of St George's, Bloomsbury lay to the north and that of St George-the-Martyr, Holborn, to the south. The first person to be buried was Robert Nelson (1665-1715) and the grounds became popularly known as Nelson's Burial Ground.

There was an entrance to each ground from the west but no connection between them. Rocque's plan of 1746 shows both grounds, with a small building in the south-west corner of the southern ground. Horwood's plan of 1813 shows the same building and another (probably the present lodge) in the northern burial ground. Housing had been built by this date in the surrounding streets to the west, north and east. The southern ground appears to have been entered from the west and the east.

The burial grounds remained in use until the Burial Acts of the 1850s caused them to be closed.

The 1st edition OS map (1871) shows the two grounds, each with a single path running from west to east, and with scattered trees within. Both grounds are marked as disused cemeteries.

A movement to turn the smaller burial grounds into gardens, which was started as early as 1843 by Sir Edwin Chadwick, gained momentum in the 1870s and by 1877 eight had been transformed. Following the foundation of the Metropolitan Gardens Association in 1882, many of the London burial grounds were reopened as gardens, including both the St George's grounds, which were laid out as a single garden between 1884 and 1889. The OS 2nd and 3rd editions (1894 and 1914) show the layout of the gardens. The southern portion had been divided, the part to the west having been separated from that to the east which had been joined to the northern ground, involving the removal of that section of wall. All the other boundaries, entrances and buildings remained the same. The gardens were laid out with a system of meandering paths amidst scattered trees, with shrubberies along the north and south sides. Except for planting there have been no changes to the gardens since the early C20.

Associated People
Features & Designations

Designations

  • Conservation Area

  • Reference: Bloomsbury

  • The National Heritage List for England: Register of Parks and Gardens

  • Reference: GD1827
  • Grade: II*

  • Site of Local Importance for Nature Conservation

Features

  • Obelisk
  • Sculpture
  • Boundary Wall
  • Description: The gardens are enclosed by early 18th century brick walls on the south, west and north sides.
  • Earliest Date:
  • Latest Date:
Key Information

Type

Funerary Site

Purpose

Recreational/sport

Principal Building

Parks, Gardens And Urban Spaces

Survival

Extant

Hectares

0.81

Open to the public

Yes

Electoral Ward

Bloomsbury

References

References

Contributors

  • London Parks and Gardens Trust