Each Wednesday the Breathing London Blog will introduce you to one of London’s breathing spaces. If there’s a place you’d like to see featured let us know (see details below).
This week Jen Pedler puts the spotlight on the Cloister Garden of St John, Clerkenwell.
The Cloister Garden of the Priory Church of St John is a tranquil oasis in the midst of the bustle of Clerkenwell. It’s open daily and is a popular place for nearby office workers to eat their lunch. The garden was originally laid out in the 1950s when the church was rebuilt after being destroyed by wartime bombing. It was initially very plain – just grass with a central fountain – but has recently been re-landscaped with funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund and the Wellcome Foundation and is now laid out in the form of a medieval herb garden with many medicinal plants.
The church belongs to the Order of St John which has its headquarters in nearby St John’s Gate. There are guided tours of the Gate and the church (including the medieval crypt) on Tuesday, Friday and Saturday at 11am and 2:30pm. I guide there about once a month. Tours are free but there’s a suggested donation of £5. For more information see http://museumstjohn.org.uk/
We’re looking for contributions from Breathing Londoners for this regular weekly slot.
Do you have a favourite park or garden in London? Have you discovered an interesting or unusual green space that you would like to share with others? If so, and you’d like to see it featured in the blog, send details of the place (name, borough), a short write-up (max 500 words but a couple of sentences will be sufficient) and let us know which picture from your Breathing London portfolio should be used to illustrate it. (Note we will only be using one picture per blog entry so if you have several from your chosen space you’ll need to select one of them.) Send your submission to greenlondon@rps.org and watch this space!
