Visit Bedford Park's Finest Gardens This Sunday
Public access being given to 13 private gardens over the weekend
The event has been running annually since 1983
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June 17, 2025
The annual Bedford Park Open Gardens event is taking place this Sunday (22 June) as part of the Bedford Park Festival.
From 2pm to 6pm there will be public access to thirteen beautiful and inspirational private gardens located throughout the neighbourhood.
The Bedford Park Festival's Open Gardens scheme first took place on 19 June 1983. It was organised by Freda Darke and Gemma Best. Freda was the wife of Leonard Darke, the chairman of the Bedford Park Society, one of the Festival's founders; Gemma was married to Andrew Best, another key figure in the first Festival in 1967.
The following year, the gardening writer Fenja Anderson, who lived in Abinger Road, sent Freda a Bressingham Gardens catalogue and wrote: "You have so many beautiful and interesting plants in your garden but perhaps this might tempt you to some more."
The scheme inspired her to write and illustrate a slim book, Gardening in Bedford Park, published in 1988 in association with the Bedford Park Society.
A map and brief description of each garden is provided upon purchase of a £10 ticket (children under 10 go free).
You can collect the map from the starting point at St Michael & All Angels Parish Hall where cream teas will also be available from 3pm. Tickets can be purchased on line .
Proceeds from the ticket sales benefit St Michael’s Church and their partner charities: the Upper Room Crosslight Chiswick and the McCabe Educational Trust.
Tickets are on sale for other Festival events on TicketSource.
Profits will support St Michael & All Angels Church, which runs the festival as part of its mission of community outreach, and its three 2024 charities: The Upper Room, helping the needy in Shepherd’s Bush; Crosslight Chiswick, which provides debt advice to individuals and families in need; and The McCabe Educational Trust, which supports a range of health and education projects in the Holy Land.
Read more and book tickets at www.bedfordparkfestival.org.
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