Thursday 15th June saw 14 members and two guests, Jan’s friend Tina and Phyllis’s step-daughter Nicola, gather at Tonbridge for the 9.31 train to Charing Cross. Arriving at Charing Cross we were surprised when Margaret led us away from the Crypt, our usual coffee stop, to cross 3 roads in order to have coffee in either Café Nero or another coffee shop close to where we were to catch the 453 bus to Regents Park station. After coffee we rushed to catch the bus which was standing at the bus stop. The majority of us went upstairs so we could see the sights on our way. At Piccadilly Circus there was a “Sands” (baby death charity/organisation) demonstration with 2 men holding up what looked like a washing line of Babygro which read “15 babies a day”. The bus continued along Regent Street passing Hamley’s toy store where Phyllis’s grandson works – as there was an assistant outside the store demonstrating something Phyllis craned her neck to see but it was not her grandson. On arrival at Regents Park we discovered there was a “Taste of Britain” event on in the park so as we could not walk through that area we approached from a different gateway. Regent’s Park (officially known as The Regent’s Park) was once part of the extensive Forest of Middlesex. On the dissolution of the monasteries (1536-40), Henry VIII acquired the Manor of Tyburn and created a hunting ground, Marylebone Park, which covered almost the same area as the 400 acres which comprise The Regent’s Park today. The chase remained in royal hands until the end of the Civil War in 1646, when it came under the control of the victorious Commonwealth. Oliver Cromwell sold it off in the form of leases to pay wages arrears to the New Model Army. Over 16,000 trees were felled during this period. In 1660 Charles II was restored to the throne and the park was returned to the Crown. Charles reportedly executed the chief leaseholder and ignored the claims of the others, before proceeding to sell off his own leases. In 1668 the land was “disparked” and for the next 100 years the land was used primarily for dairy farming and hay making. In 1760 King George III surrendered the revenues from Crown Lands in exchange for the Civil List and in 1794 John Fordyce, the Surveyor General, made a new and accurate survey of the Park. It was identified as suitable for new development, despite the local heavy clay soil and absence of ground wells for fresh water. In 1806 the architect John Nash accepted, together with his draughtsman James Morgan, the post of Architect to the Department of Woods and Forests. Following the reversion of the Marylebone Park leases to the Crown, Nash was instructed to develop a new plan for the park.

From the outset it was intended to be an exclusive development with land reserved for the “wealthy and good”. Nash, under the patronage of the Prince Regent, planned a palatial summer residence for the Prince – 50 detached villas in a parkland setting and elegant terraces around the exterior of the park. This was all part of an ambitious plan to develop the Regent’s Park and lay out an elegant new street, Regent’s Street, to link it to St James’s Park and the Prince’s London residence, Carlton House. One of the villas

LONDON WALK No. 101 – REGENTS PARK & MEDICINAL GARDEN LED BY MARGARET LEE AND BETTY SIMMONS

Nash was no businessman and the venture was nowhere near as profitable as he had hoped. Only eight villas were ever built and nothing became of the Prince’s summer pavilion. In 1826 Sir Stamford Raffles, the founder of Singapore, set up the Zoological Society of London Regent’s Park and made plans to build the world’s first scientific zoo for “teaching and elucidating zoology”. Raffles supervised the first plans before being “struck down by apoplexy” later that same year. The zoo was then established by the third Marquis of Lansdowne, who obtained a lease on a parcel of land at the northern end of the park at a nominal rent, and supervised the building of the first animal houses. The “zoo” was granted a Royal Charter by King George in 1829 but the general public were not admitted for another two decades. Charles Darwin was a regular visitor to the zoo and was particularly fascinated by the orang-utan, the first ever seen in Europe. In 1847 the Zoo started to admit paying visitors and it remains one of the world’s great zoos, at the forefront of research and the preservation of endangered species. During the nineteenth century, pressure from the expansion of London raised concerns in Parliament about the need to provide public open space for recreation, and in 1836 the general public were allowed into sections of the park for two days of the week. By the 1860’s it was attracting thousands of Londoners all year round. Following a run of severe winters in the middle of the nineteenth century, the Book of Days reported in 1869 that “on an uncommonly severe frost, it was calculated that of sliders and skaters, mostly of the humbler grades of the population, there were about 6,000 in St James’s Park, 4,000 on the Round Pond in Kensington Gardens, 25,000 in the Regent’s Park and 30,000 on the Serpentine in Hyde Park”. These events sometimes ended in tragedy, as in January 1867, when over 40 people died in Regent’s Park when the ice broke on the main lake. As I type this today, the temperature is around 30 degrees! The main new garden development in the park in the twentieth century came after the Royal Botanic Society lease expired in 1932. The site was used to create Queen Mary’s Gardens. Today this area includes the celebrated Rose Gardens, a cascade and a small Japanese garden, Mediterranean and herbaceous borders, a waterfall, a lake, begonia gardens, the Triton Fountain and the Jubilee Gates of 1935.

Queen Mary’s Rose Garden Smelling the beautiful roses

The rose gardens were stunning – the right time to see the variety and wonderful colours. Not all the roses had wonderful scents but were a stunning sight.

Our group photograph – taken in front of a rose with the following name which we thought was appropriate:

The park’s history was not uneventful in the late twentieth century. The Nash terraces were badly bombed during World War II and there was some debate over whether they should be restored. In 1947 the Gorrell Committee recommended restoration and in 1957 the Crown Estate Commissioners announced that the Nash terraces would be preserved. Restoration work took place throughout the late twentieth century. In 1982 the IRA exploded a bomb at the bandstand in the park killing seven soldiers. Lunch was taken in the park’s café with the majority of us sitting outside in the sunshine.

Meeting up after lunch Margaret led us to the Royal College of Physicians’ Medicinal Garden. As we were quite early we had a look at the plants growing in the shade at the front of the building and found some shade to wait the arrival of our guide. Waiting in the shade

Our tour guide, Graham Foster, is a doctor in the liver unit at St Barholomews Hospital. He gave a very amusing and informative talk. He gives these talks for free – we think it is a bit of light relief from his main job! However he was very enthusiastic about the plants in the garden. Dr Graham Foster There has always been competition between physicians, herbalists and homoeopathic doctors. Many of the drugs used today were used by Egyptians, Greeks and Romans, right through the Middle Ages to the Age of Herbalism in the early 1500s. Hippocrates of Kos, born around 460BC was a Greek physician and is considered to be one of the most outstanding figures in the history of medicine. He was the first person to believe that diseases were caused naturally, not because of superstition or the gods. The Tree of Hippocrates is a plane tree under which he taught his students in Kos, still there today - the plane tree, not the students, and many cuttings and seeds have been planted around the world. He showed us a plane tree in the London garden which is said to have been a cutting from the original. Many of the trees and plants growing there are everyday plants that we have in our gardens e.g. Alchemilla Mollis, Peonies, Rudbeckia, snowdrops (the bulbs should be eaten if you think you are going mad!!!)

He showed us a Ginko tree which has a leaf shaped like a brain but as it is very small, split down the middle and shrivelled round the edges he thought it must be an American brain. He mentioned another plant of particular shape and appearance which he has re-named the Trump plant for reasons too rude to mention here. We saw the Chaste Tree, so named because it was believed to suppress the sex drive so it was often planted in monastery gardens shared by monks and nuns to aid their attempts to remain chaste. It has since been found to influence the levels of testosterone in men so in fact often had the reverse effect. Graham said the he didn't wish to be personal but the Alchemilla Mollis was said to be helpful for saggy breasts. Afterwards when we were having tea and biscuits Margaret said that she had plenty of Alchemilla in her garden if anybody needed some but wasn't sure if it should be eaten or rubbed on whereupon Jeremy promptly offered his services. She thinks that perhaps he has been sitting under the Chaste Tree for too long.

Graham told the story about the Mandrake plant, the root of which was used as an anaesthetic in operations, a piece of the root being given to the patient to chew. It is said to be very difficult to pull from the ground and emits a piercing scream. Herbalists who wanted to use it were advised to plug their ears, tie the plant to a dog and place some meat out of reach - when the dog ran to the meat it would pull the screaming root from the soil. The dog would die but the herbalist would get his mandrake safely. The Mandrake Plant

Most of the plants that were originally thought to be medicinal were in fact deadly. Graham’s comment in respect of a couple of the more poisonous plants was “have some in the garden – they may keep the grandchildren quiet” (we are sure he was joking). One of the plants (I cannot remember which one) is not harmful in small doses but taken in larger quantities could give him some custom! This is a constituent of “Kalms” which are sold in chemists to aid sleep! The building is a Grade 1 listed modernist building designed by Sir Denys Lasdun. It also houses a museum, library and archives of original documents dating back over 800 years. Maybe one for another visit one day! On leaving, as the talk was free we all gave a donation for Dr Graham to use however he chose. Many thanks to Margaret and Betty for a very interesting walk.

Royal College of Physicians