Lost Gardens of London

A celebration of London’s vast and varied garden legacy, but with an unexpected focus on those gardens that have either vanished or changed beyond recognition over the centuries   Lost Gardens of London pays tribute to the evanescence of London’s vast and varied garden legacy. Todd Longstaffe-Gowan explores gardens that range in date from the sixteenth to the twenty-first century, and from the capital’s humble allotments and gardens behind terraced houses to defunct squares, amateur botanical gardens and aviaries, princely pleasure grounds, royal-palace gardens, artists’ gardens and private menageries—gardens that either no longer exist or are unrecognisable today.   Our fascination with lost gardens is often fuelled by our interest in reconstructing worlds that supply us with a powerful means of making sense of the past, and a way of reading history. In this beautiful and evocative book, illustrated with a variety of images including watercolours, coloured engravings, and