Following on from a most thought provoking day’s Seminar on ‘Images for Garden History,’ at which we enjoyed highly stimulating talks by Vanessa Remington, Todd Longstaffe-Gowan, Sir Roy Strong, Rosie Razzall, Professor David Ingram, Anna Pavord and Christine Lalumia, GHS members assembled in the Library of the Linnean Society at Burlington House.
We celebrated the 50 years since the founding of the Society by cutting a cake, beautifully made in the form of Vita Sackville-West’s tower at Sissinghurst, appropriately with a cup of tea!
The original meeting founding the Garden History Society took place in the Tea Lounge of the nearby Charing Cross Hotel, in September 1965. On this occasion Dominic Cole, our Chairman, cut the cake, following two brief speeches by Sir Roy Strong, a former President of the GHS, and by Jenifer White of Historic England (the successor body to English Heritage) emphasising the key role the GHS had performed in creating the Register of Parks and Gardens and other important legislation and achievements the GHS has been responsible for.
The day’s events then continued with guided walks though Green Park and St James’s Park, and culminated with a private view of the Exhibition ‘Painting Paradise at the Queens’ Gallery at Buckingham Palace. The exhibition continues until Sunday, 11 October 2015, and the £10 entry price allows revisits to the Gallery for a year.
All in all a most enjoyable day which will stay in the memories of those members who were lucky enough to be there.
