John Claudius Loudon - father of the English garden - Public parks and cemeteries

Public parks and cemeteries

Monkey Puzzle Avenue, Bicton Park. Copyright Louise WickhamIn 1839 Loudon received his second commission for a public park: the Derby Arboretum. Joseph Strutt, the owner, had wanted to create a botanical garden, but was persuaded that this would be too expensive to maintain. He therefore ‘commissioned Loudon to create a ‘Pleasure Ground or Recreation Ground to offer the inhabitants of the town the opportunity of enjoying, with their families, exercise and recreation in the fresh air, in public walks and grounds devoted to that purpose’.[17] Loudon compromised between this and the idea of a botanical garden by planting valuable trees and shrubs from around the world while leaving some open spaces.

Loudon’s work at Derby and his writings greatly influenced Joseph Hooker, whose layout of Kew Gardens with accurate botanical labelling became the model for all subsequent botanical gardens.

In 1841, Loudon created a plan for the gardens at Castle Kennedy, which incorporated many of his later design ideas including the use of exotic specimen such as monkey puzzle trees.

In 1843 - the last year of his life - Loudon concerned himself with the layout and planning of cemeteries. Graveyards in the large towns and cities were full and badly kept and he advocated that new cemeteries be built, such as Père-Lachaise in Paris.

Southampton Old Cemetery. Copyright Gillian BlakeLoudon visited the first new ‘necropolis’, which had been built in Glasgow in 1831, and much admired its ‘totally different character…and … nothing of the untidy effect of English cemeteries’.[18] Other cities followed, including London, and Loudon’s ideas on design were influential, particularly in the use of mainly evergreen trees and shrubs to make the area pleasant.

His ideas were set out in his last book On the Laying out, Planting, and the Managing of Cemeteries, and on the Improvement of Churchyards. This was based on his experience of designing the Histon Road Cemetery in Cambridge, Southampton Old Cemetery and Abbey Cemetery, Bath.