Time Out promotes Red Cross Garden as a hidden green gem offering an escape from the heat…

Red Cross Garden features in Time Out’s list of London’s best hidden gardens and green spaces, which was shared again this week to give London’s some ideas for making the most of the late summer heatwave. The article delves into many of London’s smaller gardens and gives insight into how finding space to escape from the everyday hustle and bustle isn’t as difficult or time consuming as we might have thought.

Red Cross Garden is steeped in history, having been designed by social reformer and one of the founders of the National Trust, Octavia Hill. Red Cross Garden and the neighbouring cottages were built in 1886 following tireless campaigning and fundraising by Hill, who devised them as an example of model housing for the ‘working poor’.  The Victorian garden gave local people space to walk, play and sit in an otherwise cramped and dirty area.

Red Cross fell into disrepair over the latter half of the 20th Century but Bankside Open Spaces Trust secured funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund and Southwark Council to return the garden to former Victorian glory. Red Cross Garden officially re-opened in 2006.  The Garden is now much like Octavia Hill’s original layout featuring a pond, bandstand and planting which is maintained regularly by volunteer groups. The space is also used for historic tours, after-school clubs and seasonal events.

You can hire Red Cross Garden for a party, register your interest by filling out our form here. You can also volunteer with us to keep this award-winning spaces in tip top conditions, find out more here.

Read Time Out’s full article of London’s hidden spaces here.