Ham Open Gardens 2026

Having praised the poster for Ham Open Gardens 2024 for its simplicity, things have taken something of a backwards step this year with the main text relegated to one side and the rest of the poster littered with unnecessary text. It looks like a poster designed by a committee.

Ham Open Gardens 2024

To be honest, I find the poster for Ham Open Gardens more attractive than the prospect of actually visiting the gardens.

The poster gets everything right; it is appealing and it says all the you need to know in large clear letters. This is very different to the approach sometimes adopted for Ham Fair and I hope that the simpler and clearer style will be used for all such events from now on.

Mt issue with the gardens is that I have seen most, if not all, of them many times and they lack the grandeur of those on show in Petersham Open Gardens, particularly now that the lovely garden at the convent has been built over.

I also have an issue with the way that the event is publicised on the HPA&AG describes the event on their website, which states "Once every two years, we have unique opportunity  to ...". If it happens every two years then it is not unique!!

Ham Open Gardens 22 May

This poster on Upper Ham Road announces that the next Ham Open Gardens will be on 22 May from 12 to 5pm. I suppose it could have mentioned that this is a Sunday.

Fortune House on New Road

Fortune House was one of the gardens new to Ham Open Gardens and that alone was enough for me to want to see it. The garden hugs the house that occupies a not very large plot on the corner of New Road and Craig Road.

The garden is cleverly and prettily divided in to sections and no space is left unused or unloved. Above all it is the attention to detail that wins though and makes this garden so lovely.

The Gatehouse on Ham Common

The Gatehouse sits on the left side of Great South Avenue as it leaves Ham Common and heads for Ham House. The very public and pretty front garden is kept in the style of the period of the house while the private and also pretty rear garden is designed for family use.

Family use means things like a lawn to play on but the garden does much more than that and there are lots of things to delight the eye from the neatly arranged flower pots on the steps to the upper lawn and a couple of discrete statues.

Stafford Cottages on Ham Common

The front garden at Stafford Cottages is easily and often admired by people walking along the North side of Ham Common and I usually take a little detour when passing through the area just to get another look at it.

Gate House Garden on Ham Common

Strictly speaking the garden maintained by the Ham Amenities Group on the corner of Ham Common and Upper Ham Road is always open and Ham Open Gardens 2013 was just another opportunity to draw attention to it. It was looking very good that day and easily outshone some of the gardens much larger than it.

Forbes House on Ham Common

I suspect that this is the garden that most people were most interested in seeing in Ham Open Gardens 2013 so it is a shame that photography was politely banned and that a few burly men with earpieces were there to see the rules enforced. I was asked to stop taking photos after taking this one but I was not asked to delete it (that has happened to me in theatres) so I argue that it is reasonable to share it.

The garden was ordered geometrically with  lawns, borders, paths and ponds dividing the garden up in to sections each with its own purpose and beauty.

Walled garden at 19 Sudbrook Gardens

 

If I had read the guide to Ham Open Gardens 2013 carefully then I would have known that the garden entrance to 19 Sudbrook Gardens is in Ham Gate Avenue and not wasted a walk in to Sudbrook Gardens.

I have a justifiable softness for walled gardens and this one helps to show why. Brick walls are the perfect backdrop to borders. They also protect from the wind and hold on to the heat from the sun which allows delicate plants that would fail elsewhere to flourish.

Pretty though the flowers were, my favourite part of the garden was the small door out to Ham Gate Avenue.

The Cassel Hospital on Ham Common

Cassel Hospital seems to be empty now so this may have been the last chance to enjoy the large grounds before they are built on. The disuse of the building was echoed by the garden that had been hastily and inelegantly mown for the open day rather than carefully for residents.

Stokes House in Ham Street

I had visited Stokes House a few times over the years, both as part of Ham Open Gardens and also when it has been opened on its own, so I knew what to expect when visiting this time. It is next door to Bench House and so there was no point in seeing one without the other.

Stokes House has the much larger garden as Bench House lost most of its years ago to create the houses in The Bench. The garden is in sections separated by hedges and borders so these two photos are just a sample of what is on offer. They show a garden that is both pretty and functional.

Bench House in Ham Street

For Ham Open Gardens 2013 I opted for a anti-clockwise tour of Ham Common with a little diversion down Ham Street  where I found Bench House. This is one of the gardens that I had not been to before so I was keen to satisfy my curiosity.

The most prominent feature of the garden was the wisteria in full bloom on the South facing wall. It looked over a walled garden with thick lush borders.

Ham Open Gardens 19 May 2013

The next Ham Open Gardens is on Sunday 19 May 2013, but you'd be hard pressed to find much publicity for it. There is one large banner on the main road, on a fence in distant Petersham, and this A5 leaflet stuck in the window of Newsbox on Ham Parade. This is exactly the sort of event that ought to be publicised on the new community board on Ham Parade, but isn't.

Classic pond

My final picture from Ham Open Gardens 2011 is once again from the luscious garden at Sudbrook Cottage which was easily the best find of the day. And I've saved the main feature to last.

The round pond in a square hole has classic pretensions and looks old, which I suppose it is as fifty is a lot of pond years. It's all very Capability Brown. Which is good.

Table, chairs and pots

Even when doing just a simple table and chairs on the lawn, Sudbrook Cottage manages to make something a little special. The circle of stone sets the scene and the ring of plant pots adds the finishing touch.

Broken seat

I think that this bench is wonderful. I love the rustic stone. I love the shape of and decoration on the backrest. I love the way that the lichen has claimed the seat for them selves. And I love the fact that it has not been repaired or replaced despite the damage that makes it unusable as a seat. It still works perfectly fine as a decoration.

Long border and other things

Continuing our walk through the garden at Sudbrook Cottage takes us from the sunken area to the main lawn with edged with a wide border of flowers and all contained by an old and pretty brick wall.

Normally all that would be enough to justify appearing here but the attention to detail that is the main characteristic of Sudbrook Cottage plays its part here and within the border there is a hedge protecting a seat and two large stone balls protecting the hedge.

Sunken garden

Our tour of the garden at Sudbrook Cottage continues with the sunken garden. This sits quietly in the north-west corner of the garden, which means that it captures the sun for most of the day.

Privacy is maintained by the large walls that form the boundary of the garden and by low hedges that define this section. The few steps down to it mean that even the low hedges are sufficient to keep prying eyes away.

Seats within the sunken garden let you linger and appreciate the trees and neat shrubs, as well as the flower borders sheltering under the walls.

Bench and pots

There is so much to like about the garden at Sudbrook Cottage from the overall design that sweeps the garden smoothly around the house to the many rich details that arrest your gaze as you try to take it all in one.

In this one little part of the large garden we have a need clean bench sitting on bricks with a clutch of complementary white flowers bursting out of the pot next to it and another pot keeping watch from the safety of the border behind.

Garden door at Sudbrook Cottage

The one garden that we all wanted to see at Ham Open Gardens 2011 was Sudbrook Cottage, not least because it was originally created by Beverley Nicholas who wrote about it in his Sudbrook Trilogy starting with Garden Open Today.

The other reason for wanting to see it was the promise given by the front garden there which is small but neat, ordered and colourful.

Entrance to the garden is via a quaint door in the long brick wall that sweeps along Ham Gate Avenue back towards Ham Common. On crossing the threshold the first thing that you notice is the side of the cottage that looks just as pretty as the front garden for all the same reasons.