St John’s Lodge Garden is affectionately known as the secret garden and is tucked away in the inner circle of Regents Park. It is next to the much more well known St Mary’s Rose Garden but is very easily missed and not known about by many. This is of course one of the reasons it is so delightful and a perfect example of quiet London.
The gardens belong to the rather grand St John’s Lodge. The lodge was originally built in 1818. It passed through a number of owners until the Marquess of Bute acquired the lease in 1889. Under his guidance a garden was designed as a place fit for meditation, and a welcome contrast to the busier main paths of Regents Park.
During WW1, the lodge was used as a hospital for disabled officers. Today the lodge is owned by the Royal family of Brunei but the gardens are still open and the public are free to wander in and out as they please. Of course the lodge itself is strictly off limits!
The approach to the gardens is through a small and easily missed gate where you enter a magical covered pergola. From the entrance you can’t see the gardens, simply the urn overflowing with flowers at the end of the tunnel. At this point, there is no clue as to what lays beyond. You are fairly immediately greeted by the statue of a boy and a mermaid on a pedestal set in a stone-rimmed pond – Hylas and the Nymph. Beyond this is St John’s Lodge.
From there on in you are within a series of ‘garden rooms’, each designed a little differently and with a different feel to the last. Some are more formal and traditional, others are looser and less compact. As you would expect from The Royal Parks all of the flower beds are beautiful and very well tended. The grass is lush and green and regularly watered to keep it so.
The gardens retain the peaceful meditative qualities for which they were designed. It is not a place for children to play or ride around on bikes or scooters. It is not a place for noisy groups or mobile phone conversations. It is a place to reflect and relax. There are benches in various places around the garden and lots of hidden corners to discover. If you want to sit quietly with a book or to simply enjoy some peaceful solitude this is perfect place.
The charming gardens remain a place of serenity and calm. A lovely place to escape for a while, and because they remain so uncrowded and unknown, they really do feel secret. They are somewhere that I really don’t want to shout too loudly about to ensure they remain that way!
first image via wikimedia
