Walking along Scarsdale Villas in the late summer evening (hot, arid, airless) I was impressed by this front garden on the corner plot. Filled to bursting with old-fashioned flowers (in old-fashioned colours), just to look at it was a refreshing tonic. Roses, hollyhocks, foxgloves, geraniums, a spiky white flower I couldn’t identify, green foliage grown for its own sake.
In his (revolutionary) 1919 book Garden First in Land Development William Webb argued that the working poor created cottage gardens for their sustenance, the aristocracy created pleasure gardens for their private enjoyment, but only the middle classes created showy front gardens to share with the world.
Increasingly front gardens in London are being tarmac-ed over to provide parking spaces for four or five car families. It’s a selfish and self-defeating trend. Community covenants need to protect the gardens that remain.
More on the development of this corner of London: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=50321
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