Garden Museum

Nice refurbishment of the Garden Museum.

I went to this museum just before it closed for refurbishment and found it delightful. I was therefore interested to see what changes had been made. The museum section looked cleaner and had the objects had been rehung. There was a lovely mix of paintings and objects exploring the history of and various themes in gardening. There is a new small art gallery to one side overlooking the old chancel space. I forgot to say it’s a converted church.

There was also a nice new space looking at the history of the site which originally had been the site of Tradescant’s Ark of unusual objects. The collection from which went on to form the basis of the Ashmolean Museum. If you’ve not heard about it before try Philippa Gregory’s two novels about Tradescant and his son, Earthly Joy and Virgin Earth.

The biggest change was to cloister at the back which has been enclosed round the edge and a nice new café has been built to one side. The courtyard still has Tradescant’s tomb in the centre plus that of Captain Bligh of the Bounty fame.

Review
Guardian

 

 

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