Park of the week

180. Geraldine Mary Harmsworth Park

This park, in Southwark, is best known as the one surrounding the Imperial War Museum. I was visiting the museum but decided to look around the park as well. It’s attractive in its own right and is the largest open space in the northwest of the borough. 

The park was formerly part of the site of the Bethlehem Royal Asylum, built there when it moved from Moorfields in 1815 on land formerly known as St George's Fields, a marshy area with ponds and streams draining into the Neckinger Brook (now covered over, eventually draining into the Thames at St Saviour’s Dock). The marshy character of the land was the reason that housing development had not taken place there.

The park was created when the hospital was moved to Bethlem Royal Hospital in Bromley in 1926 and the existing patients’ wings were demolished. The land and buildings were purchased by Viscount Rothermere, proprietor of the Daily Mail, who presented them to the London County Council for use as a public park for the “splendid struggling mothers of Southwark”, in memory of his mother, Geraldine Mary Harmsworth. It was opened in 1934. The Imperial War Museum was created in the remains of the hospital in the 1930s.

Apart from the distinctive museum building, the open, flat landscape is dominated by mature trees: old London planes, silver birch, hornbeam and oak. Wildflowers grow in the lawns. A small orchard has been planted with native and exotic fruits.

In the park is a section of the Berlin Wall and a Soviet War Memorial to the citizens and service personnel who died in WWII, unveiled in 1999.

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The Tibetan Garden of Contemplation and Peace, commissioned by The Tibet Foundation, was opened in 1999 by the Dalai Lama. The centre piece is a Mandala, a Tibetan Buddhist symbol connected with peace and the well-being of those who see it. The outer circle of the garden contains specially commissioned sculptures representing the four elements of earth, fire, water and air.

The park has picnic benches, a cafe, toilets, a sundial, playground, and a sports area with facilities for football, basketball, netball and tennis.

Judith Field

Geraldine Mary Harmsworth Park, Lambeth Rd, London SE1 6HZ