Octavia Hill and Red Cross Gardens: Southwark’s Gift of Love
“A large open air sitting room for the young and the old who lived in the numerous courts in the neighbourhood.” — Octavia Hill describes Red Cross Gardens, Southwark.
Southwark is still famed today for its distinct character as the first ‘suburb’ of modern London, directly across the Thames from the City of London. A place of contrasts — entertainment and riches for some, debt and prison for others. Today, people come for its history and ever-evolving leisure and pleasure. Few guess Southwark holds a little corner that was the birthplace of the biggest movement to conserve and preserve British history: an English cottage garden that feels like a piece of countryside in one of Europe’s oldest urban areas.
The Early Movement for Public Green Spaces
We have to go back five years before Octavia Hill is born to sow the seeds of this.
In 1833, a Parliamentary Committee recommends the need for public parks and open spaces for the ‘poor’. These are the people without access to private gardens in the rapidly growing metropolis of London. At this point only the Royal Parks exist, and the Committee notes:
“South of the river from Vauxhall Bridge to Rotherhithe, not a single spot is reserved as a park or public walk.”
Commons and open fields not yet built on existed, but they still held livestock — “nothing that was hoped might wean the labouring classes from low and debasing pleasures… drinking houses, dog fighting and boxing matches.”
Octavia Hill and the Kyrle Society
By 1877, Octavia Hill and her sister Miranda had formed The Kyrle Society. From a family of social reformers, Octavia in particular had grown from a little girl in rural Finchley — reputed to have said, “Mummy, I wish I could have a field so large I could run it forever” — to a campaigner on many issues impacting the poor.
The Kyrle Society was named after a man from 17th-century Ross-on-Wye deemed eccentric for leaving his fortune to create what is thought to be the first public park in modern Britain. The Society aimed to prevent land being illegally built over, preserve ancient footpaths, and convert former burial grounds and other waste spaces “to relieve the burden to the poor of not just poverty but ugliness.”
It wasn’t the only society recognising such needs, but it was the only one created and run by women. They mixed a combination of green space, better housing and planning laws, cultural activities, and children’s play.
The Creation of Red Cross Gardens
In 1887, the Kyrle Society raises money to open Red Cross Gardens in Southwark. Their gardeners, Fanny Wilkinson (England’s first professional female gardener) and Emmeline Sieveking landscaped a former refuse tip in the overcrowded courts of Southwark.
The gardens featured formal paths and flowerbeds, a bandstand, mosaics, a covered play area, and an ornamental pond — offering something for all. Red Cross Hall was built as “the bright drawing room” to offer protection against the London weather.
Fanny Wilkinson turned what was seen as a middle-class hobby into a career and was a close friend of Octavia, both believing the poor should have the best to help them rest and thrive. She also bridged class and gender divides by working with the more traditional, male-led Metropolitan Parks and Gardens Association, training apprentices like Emmeline and asking locals what they wanted from gardens.
The response was extraordinary — locals flocked to the gardens, while dignitaries such as the Archbishop of Canterbury praised the project. Contributions included Robert Hunter of the Commons and Footpaths Preservation Society donating goldfish for the pond, and Reverend Hardwicke Rawnsley composing a sonnet for the opening.
It was the first recorded occasion that Robert Hunter, Hardwicke Rawnsley, and Octavia Hill worked together — the same trio who, in 1895, co-founded the National Trust.
Legacy and Impact
“Do Noble Deeds, Don’t Just Dream Them.” — Octavia Hill.
Red Cross Gardens and Hall thrived until the Second World War, when the area was damaged by bombing and covered in tarmac. Yet the seeds planted here grew into something far bigger: the National Trust, which today has almost 500 properties and over 6 million members in England and Wales.
Octavia Hill herself died in 1912, but her influence on housing and parks was so profound she was one of only three women invited to Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee service in 1887 on her own merits. She has a memorial stone in Westminster Abbey, and she and her lifelong companion Harriott York are buried together on land now owned by the National Trust.
Restoration of Red Cross Gardens
In 2005, Bankside Open Spaces Trust and the Heritage Lottery Fund fully restored Red Cross Gardens. The Princess Royal reopened them in 2006, and today Southwark uses the space as its open-air living room all year round.
Lovingly tended by volunteers, the gardens continue to thrive and were even named a finalist in Britain in Bloom.
Visiting Red Cross Gardens Today
Perfect for an open-air lunch after stocking up at Borough Market, family time on autumn weekends, or a reflective team moment, Red Cross Gardens remain a sanctuary in Southwark.
You can also book a private tour with Nikky Catto to discover Red Cross Gardens and explore a nearby National Trust property that even Octavia Hill would have found surprising.
Plan Your Visit
Discover Southwark’s history, Octavia Hill’s legacy, and London’s first steps towards conservation. Book a private Southwark tour or Southwark guided walk today.
