Victoria Embankment Gardens, Westminster, Inner London, England

The following is from the English Heritage Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest: 

A set of mid 19th public gardens made from land reclaimed from the River Thames as part of the development of the Victoria Embankment, considered at that time to be the finest thoroughfare in Europe.

LOCATION, AREA, BOUNDARIES, LANDFORM, SETTING

The gardens occupy a series of three sites curving round a loop on the north side of the River Thames between Blackfriars Bridge to the east and Westminster Bridge to the south. All are bounded to either the south or east by Victoria Embankment. The easternmost section, Temple Garden, is bounded to the north and east by Temple Place and to the west by the entrance to the Temple Underground station. A small triangular portion is separated from the main Temple Garden by Temple station buildings, and is also bounded to the north and west by Temple Place. The main section of the Victoria Embankment Gardens, Villiers Street Garden, is about 300 metres south-west of Temple Garden and is bounded to the north and east by Savoy Place, and to the west by Villiers Street, with Embankment Place to the south-west. The third garden, Whitehall Garden, is 100 metres to the south, separated from Villiers Street Garden by Hungerford Bridge. Whitehall Garden is bounded to the north by Northumberland Avenue and Whitehall Place, the buildings in Whitehall Court provide the boundary to the west, and Horseguards Avenue the boundary to the south. Temple Garden is enclosed within chain-link fencing; the other two sections are enclosed within iron railings and have shrubberies growing along the boundaries.

REFERENCES used by English Heritage:

Gardeners' Chronicle, (3 December 1870)

The Gardener, (December 1870), pp 530-532

Illustrated London News, (2 June 1872) [view of the Embankment]

The Builder, (27 November 1886) [Women's Fawcett Memorial]

The Graphic, (22 July 1893) [Press Band Playing in the Embankment Gardens]

J J Sexby, The Municipal Parks, Gardens and Open Spaces of London (1905), pp 262-289

LCC, London Parks and Open Spaces (1906), pp 54, 76-77

E Cecil, London Parks and Gardens (1907), p 132

G S Cooper, The Outdoor Monuments of London (1928)

B Cherry and N Pevsner, The Buildings of England: The Cities of London and Westminster (1973), pp 388, 660

Victoria Embankment Gardens, Whitehall Court, (City of Westminster Grant Application 1994)

Application for Heritage Lottery Funding, (City of Westminster July 1997)

Maps

J Rocque, Plan of the Cities of London and Westminster and Borough of Southwark and the country near ten miles around, surveyed 1741-1745, published 1746

R Horwood, Map of London, 1792-1799, 2nd edition 1813 by William Faden

Vulliamy, Plan for Laying Out The Late Crown Lands on the Victoria Embankment, July 1873 (London Metropolitan Archives)

Bacon, Map of London, 1888

LCC, Plan of Victoria Embankment, 1902 (London Metropolitan Archives)

OS 25" to 1 mile: 3rd edition published 1919

OS 60" to 1 mile: 1st edition published 1867

2nd edition published 1894

Archival items

Sir J Bazalgette, Pamphlet No 1, Volume Miscellanea, 1868 (Metropolitan Archives)

Metropolitan Board of Works, Pamphlet No 15, Volume Miscellanea, 1870 (Metropolitan Archives)

Description written: February 1999

Amended: October 2001

Edited: January 2002