The Buckingham Palace Garden, London

Famous English gardens visit

The great thing about Buckingham Palace garden, according to Garden Manager Mark Lane, is that ‘no-one knows what to expect,’ he says. It’s true. We’re all familiar with the Buckingham Palace itself, but what of this famous English garden that lies hidden behind it? Anyone lucky enough to have attended one of The Queen’s garden parties will describe it as an oasis of greenery in the centre of London. But there’s more to it than that.

Buckingham Palace Garden

Despite being largest privet garden in London, this 39-acre space is designed for the enjoyment of many. It is ‘a working garden’ as Mark calls it, welcoming 610,000 visitors last year alone. So, if you are thinking of what famous English gardens you’d like to visit, visit the Buckingham Palace garden. Get your passport to London! FREE entry to over 50 attractions – FREE public transport – The London PassLike the Royal Family, it has a duty to perform. Buckingham Palace famous English gardens manages to be at once open and secluded, functional and ornamental, floral and wooded, tidy and ‘untidy’ – a remarkable and somewhat surprising achievement for your visit of this one of the famous English gardens.

The design of the Buckingham Palace garden as we see it today dates back to the early 19^th century, when King George IV made substantial alterations to the building (then known as the Queen’s House), transforming it into Buckingham Palace under the capable hands of architect John Nash. Homepage link At the same time, George IV commissioned his gardener, William Townsend Aiton, to create a garden fit for a king. A thre-acre lake was dug out, and a mound constructed, designed to screen the Buckingham Palace from the nearby Royal Mews. This famous English gardens that we advise you to visit, style was heavy influenced by Aiton’s predecessors and key exponents of the English Landscape movement, William Kent and Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown.

The Buckingham Palace Garden

Today, the Buckingham Palace garden still feels park-like, in some places even pastoral, with its groves and avenues of trees, its Victorian shrubberies, serpentine walks, sweeping lawns and vast lake edged with marginal  planting. Theatre Breaks with Superbreak‘When you are at a Buckingham Palace garden party, you want to imagine you are in the countryside,’ says Mark. ‘The great thing is that you can get lots here and easily forget that you are in London.’ A canopy of trees surrounds the grounds, providing shelter from the noise and shielding many of the neighbouring buildings from view. The thick layer of trees in Buckingham Palace garden also adds depth and theatricality, creating an impressive backdrop.

The Buckingham Palace garden is home to almost 100 mature specimens of London plane, but is also planted with beech, polar, oak, ash, horse chestnut and Indian chestnut, conifers, and a few rarities such as the Chinese chestnut tree, Costanea millissima; the round-leaved beech, Fagus sylvatice ‘Rotundifolia’; and the Indian bean tree, Catalpa bignonioides ‘Aurea’. It is also rich in spring-flowering trees and shrubs, such as azaleas, rhododendrons and magnolias. Rhododendron ‘ London Calling’ was raised here by Palace gardeners as a 70^thbirthday present to HM The Queen. Summer-flowering Magnolia grandiflora, with its enormous flowers, is another stunner at this famous English gardens that we advise you to visit.

There is little information on what the Buckingham Palace garden looked like 100 years ago.

Across the lake is an island, which acts as a welcome refuge for wildlife, particularly during the Buckingham Palace garden party. ‘There’s lots of cover there, and we have all manner of nesting birds – coots, moorhens, shelducks, mallards and great crested grebes.’ The Buckingham Palace garden is also home to birds that you would not normally see in London, such as sandpipers and sedge warblers. ‘And our weeping willows give fish protection from predators. Along the lake, we have a kilometer of marginal planting. We cut back a quarter of it every year and leave the rest untidy, ‘ Mark explane. ‘Our wildlife survey in the 1900s showed that we were too clean, so we now have 350 types of British wildflowers. We also have in excess of 700 different moths, six of which were recorded for the rirst time this year, and more than 280 species of beetles. Bats thrive in Buckingham Palace garden too.

One of the highlights of the summer Buckingham Palace garden parties is the Long Border, also known as the Herbaceous Border. Looking at it now, one would never guess that it was once used for the cultivation of vegetables during the Second World War. ‘ There’s little duplication of plants, so Buckingham Palace garden party guests can walk up and down the border and enjoy all the wonderful variety of flowers, including phloxes, salvias, rudbeckias, lyhrums, persicarias, agapanthus, monardas, rupatoriums, achilleas, dahlias, delphiniums, helianthus, ginger, bananas, campanulas, hostas, sweet peas and the occasional rose.

We label most things, so that when you visit this famous English gardens, you can jot down names. The sweet peas are grown in the glasshouses at Windsor, and all their colour are agreed with The Queen’s florist, so they can be used in floral arrangements around the palace.

The Victorian tradition of summer bedding is kept alive on the terrace outside The Queen’s privet apartments. Here, the scheme changes twice a year, and will no doupt be dazzling for this summer’s Jubilee celebrations.

Beyond the Herbaceous Border is a more intimate area known as The Queen’s Walk, where serpentine paths lead you past shrubberies of evergreens and autumn beauties such as acers and cornus. Under the trees there are lots of lilies, daphnies, ericas ans sarcococcas, thinning them only slightly. Around one of these bends is the spectacular Rose Garden. ‘The roses in this famous English gardens are planted is straight lines, in a single colour and about  60 per bed. It’s predominantly Hybrid Teas, with a few floribundas.’ At the centre is a gleaming white William Kent summerhouse smothered in wisteria, behind which is small rose border and a catenary adorned with climbing roses. A fairly new development in the Buckingham Palace garden is the tennis court border, at the edge of the garden. ‘Over a four-year period, we planted around the tennis court. The plantings transform the area, breaking up the expanse of lawn and creating a nature corridor between the different wild areas. We have shade-loving plants on one side and sun-loving area on the other.’ Many things are doing well, including the aptly named A. ‘Buckingham Palace’.

‘We have pushed the boundaries of what we can grow in London, but at the same time we need to make sure we can look after these plants. Ultimately, nothing major is done without The Queen knowing. There are no surprises. After all, it is her garden.’

Buckingham Palace garden can be visited as part of a pre-booked tour in Aug and Spt. 

ALSO IN THE AREA…

If you are in London for the Jubilee or the Olympics, you can visit these other famous English gardens:

GARDEN CHELSEA PHYSIC GARDEN, 66 Royal Hospital Road, Chelsea, London SW3 4HS. Tel: +44 (0)20 7352 5646, chelseaphysicgarden.co.uk

GARDEN Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, Richmond, Surrey TW9 3AB. Tel:+44 (0)20 8332 5655, kew.org

GARDEN Chiswick House and Gardens, Burlington Lane, London W4 2RP. Tel: +44 (0)20 8995 0508. Chgt.rg.uk

Garden Centre Nearby

10.4 miles from Buckingham Palace: Syon Park Garden Centre

Brentford, Middlesex TW8 8JF. Opened in 1968 by Queen Mother. Top quality plants, furniture, giftware and a restaurant.