Alverstoke Crescent Garden

About Alverstoke Crescent Garden

In 1828, a 21-year old architect Thomas Ellis Owen designed a grand Crescent for a new development by the Solent ‘Angleseyville’. Only the first half of the Crescent was built; but the Ornamental Garden a 1.36 acre strip fronting the whole planned sweep was laid out for the exclusive enjoyment of residents, who paid annual rent for a key. One of these was Captain Charles Austen Royal Navy, Jane’s young sailor brother. The Garden boasted a raised Walk, and a central Reading Room, flanked by twin bath-houses, for sea-water bathing. By 1950 these buildings were demolished. The Garden’s encircling iron railings had long gone for WW2, all was overgrown, rubbish-filled and dreary. Restoration began in 1989, inspired by the Hampshire Gardens Trust; there is now a strong partnership between Gosport Council and 350 Friends who have researched and restored this late Regency Garden, and lovingly maintain it. Unlike later Victorian planting, where geometry and strict order were imperative for a garden of quality, the Regency flavour was more exuberantly informal. Leafy scenes and vistas, drifts of colour, trailing climbers and flowing curves imitating leafy glades in the New Forest; these were the gardeners’ delight before the young Victoria became Queen and Prince Albert made such a virtue of regimented order. A natural look was contrived with care; a backbone of evergreens kept shrubbery walks green all year, lit up in season by flowering shrubs, climbers, and small blossoming trees. Seats were enhanced by scented shrubs and plants nearby. In June, the perfume of Old Roses and Pinks here is nearly overwhelming, but the planting is varied enough to provide colour and interest for most of the year. Bulbs, Forget-me-nots and Love-in-the-mist in early Spring, and old fashioned late-flowering annuals like Love-lies-bleeding, and Marvel of Peru join drifts of hardy Cyclamen in Autumn, adding to the radiant colours of turning leaves. There are lovely specimen trees; a spectacularly ancient Tulip tree displays thousands of green and apricot flowers in May. Along Terrace Walk, small vistas and scenes, seen through the shrubberies, beguile the stroller, who glimpses wrought-iron flower baskets, a waving Bamboo, or the dolphin fountain, playing where the Reading Room once stood. Welcoming Volunteers work on Wednesdays. Disabled access is excellent.

Plant sale. Green Flag Award.