The weekend was spent visiting various gardens across parts of London as part of the Open Squares Weekend – from nature reserves to formally laid out affairs – all had their own unique charm.

I think my heart goes to the nature reserves, although it would be nicer if they had more space to sit and relax rather than being so determinedly devoted to “the cause”.

The full set of photos can be found over at Flickr as usual.

Drapers’ Hall Garden

A small private garden on some back streets that have been recently improved by local builders. Had a pleasant charm which was boosted by its quiet back-street location.

The current design dates from 1928, although the garden itself dates from 1543. The Drapers’ Company

Fann Street Wildlife Garden

A volunteer run nature reserve on the edges of the Barbican complex with a narrow dead-end path which was quite charming, and a wide path that runs around a central wild grasses area. A ” hotel” for insects is new this year. A guide lamented the local council for not clearing some overgrown areas, and my socialist side nodded in sympathy while my capitalist side wondered why they couldn’t clear it themselves.

Maughan Library and ISC Garden

Awesome building, but slightly insipid garden – allegedly designed as series of contemplative rooms – but felt more like a slightly neglected domestic back garden.

Carlton House Terrace Gardens

Directly opposite a regular haunt of mine – the Royal Society – is this long private garden for local residents/workers with a large lawn area and quaint pathways that weave around planted bedding. This is the sort of formal garden I like – open places to rest, with hidden corners to disappear into.

The Red Arrows

A short stop on the Mall to watch the RAF flypast for the Queen’s Birthday.

The  Phoenix Garden

This is actually open to the public during the week, and must be a boon for local workers. A nature reserve style garden that was rescued from a waste-land in the 1980s by the local residents. www.phoenixgarden.org

Hereford Square

A private square laid out by the builder of the houses that surround it, and still owned by the descendants of the original builder. A local committee controls the gardens and a recent decision was taken to ban dogs from the square.

Courtfield Gardens (East)

A sunken garden surrounding an old church with a nice mix of path ways around the upper ledges and a sunken area lawn and childrens playground. The bins asking people not to leave dirty nappies suggests a lot of local mummies use the place.

Courtfield Gardens (West)

A large lawn with planting around the edges is however soften by the massive plane tree in the centre – said to be over 200 years old. www.courtfieldgardens.net

Bramham Gardens

Another large lawn, but with some lovely paths running around the edges that are in most areas blocked off from the lawn, creating green alleyways. A leaflet noted that the place has little wildlife compared to most gardens, although an owl takes up residence each autumn and delights residents with its hoots. The huge plane trees, some of the tallest in London make it difficult to grow flowering plants, but they do create a pond of cool air in the summer.

Earls Court Square

A small garden with some charming planting around the edges and a profusion of roses in a central seating area. A small jazz band was playing when I arrived, and there is a quite active local group who open the place up for summer events.

Nevern Square

Quite a bland space frankly, with a huge lawn and narrow path round the edges. Not a lot of charm at all, and looking rather municipal – but the locals seemed to be taking advantage of the wide space available. www.nevernsquaregarden.co.uk

K+K Hotel George

After the blandness of the previous garden, this private space for hotel visitors was substantial difference. A lawn area which was decorated with works of art also offered a tiny hidden niche that was a pure delight to discover. The faces on the trees probably excite children, while the rainforest relic delivered a now mandatory dose of guilt to the jet-setting visitors. K+K Hotels

The full set of photos can be found over at Flickr as usual.

Today (Mon 7th June) is the final day to buy discounted tickets to the Open Garden Squares Weekend that runs this very Saturday and Sunday (12th-13th June). Ticket prices are £7.50 in advance but £9 if bought during the weekend. The ticket acts as an unlimited pass for the whole weekend, which seems to be rather good value for money. That also gets you a copy of the printed guidebook.

The gardening version of London Open House Weekend is where us mere mortals are allowed to wander around those closed off garden squares that act as glorified roundabouts in the posher parts of London – or peek like nosy people at private gardens that people have managed to create in our polluted atmosphere.

Many of the gardens have various additional events going on from guided tours to music, refreshments or exhibitions.

A couple of months ago when the initial details were announced, I converted their long list of venues into an interactive map – and last night updated it with all the latest updates.

Click for map

Tickets are now available online or via the electric telephone at 020 8347 3230 (Mon-Fri 9am-6pm). If you miss the ticket sales deadline, the map has an option to show the venues selling tickets on the day.

The details for the gardening version of London Open House Weekend have been announced – where us mere mortals are allowed to wander around those closed off garden squares that act as glorified roundabouts in the posher parts of London – or peek like nosy people at private gardens that people have managed to create in our polluted atmosphere.

Unlike the Open House weekend which is completely free of charge, you do have to pay to get into the gardens. Fortunately, the price is just £7.50 if brought in advance and acts as an unlimited pass for the whole weekend, which is frankly rather good value for money. That also gets you a copy of the printed guidebook.

The Open Garden Squares event takes place on the weekend of June 12 & 13, 2010, so time to mark it off in your calendars.

There are, at time of writing, some 166 venues open to the public over the weekend, and while their website has a list, I tend to find that for these sorts of things, a map works best. So I made one!

Click here for my super-dooper magic map thingymajig

..or you can use their list (boo hiss!) if you prefer.

Many of the gardens have various additional events going on from guided tours to music, refreshments or exhibitions.

The vast majority are turn up and look around, but a couple of rather interesting gardens have to be pre-booked, you need ID with you and no photography permitted. These stringent restrictions become understandable when you realise the venues are HM Prison’s Wandsworth and Wormwood Scrubs. To reserve a spot, you have to buy tickets then when they arrive, the booking details will be provided at the time.

In additon, some venues have guided tours of their gardens and their history:

Particularly notable though are the Brunel Museum – tiny garden, but access to the floodlit tunnel and main shaft chamber; The Pump House Educational Museum will be open at Lavender Pond Nature Park and the Chapel will have a rare weekend opening at Brompton Cemetery.

Tickets are now available online or via the electric telephone at 020 8347 3230 (Mon-Fri 9am-6pm). Some of the venues will sell tickets on the day, but they cost a bit more at £9.00 each.

Those fine chaps (and chapesses) over at the London Parks & Gardens Trust, who organise the annual Open Gardens Squares Weekend have launched a new project to create an online database of every notable garden and park in London.

The 3-year project commenced in December 2008 and will be completed by late 2011, with new research, photography and historic images brought in to illustrate the entries.

In the first instance it includes core information on sites on the Inventory Database, which now comprises over 2430 entries, and these are gradually being uploaded.

They say that they wanted to make some information available now and to give people a taster of the full website, but they’d also like to encourage people to contribute comments, knowledge and feedback – so if you know about a garden or park (or geekish database knowledge), here is your chance to contribute to the project.

Details over at the The London Gardens Online Project