Planting up Christchurch Gardens, in pictures
by Clare Graham, Chair, Open Spaces Committee
Here are some photos of the community planting morning we held on 20 October 2026 together with Enable Parks, to celebrate the 75th anniversary of Battersea's unique little World War II memorial shelter.
Christchurch Gardens sits at the corner of Cabul Road and Battersea Park Road, and contains something very special: the former borough of Battersea's memorial to its civilian war dead of 1939-45. Designed as an elegantly curved shelter containing seating, this was designed by the Borough Surveyor and opened in 1951, as part of the borough's contribution to the Festival of Britain; these days it's listed Grade II by Historic England. Wanting to celebrate its 75th anniversary we got together with Enable Parks, donating Society funds for some new plants and organising a community session to put them in. I'll be writing that up fully for the next issue of Battersea Matters, but wanted to share meanwhile some extra photos of what proved to be a very enjoyable morning.
On a drizzly morning I arrived bright and early at 9.00 a.m. to find Olivia, Max and Catie from Enable Parks already hard at work setting out the new plants in the three beds in front of the monument to match our pre-agreed design. © Clare Graham.
The plants all came from Coles nursery and we were really pleased with them: excellent value, both in quality and in quantity. © Clare Graham.
Ready for planting: new hellebores, skimmias and grasses. We kept the better plants from the old scheme too, including the fern visible in the background and some sedums. © Clare Graham.
This group of pupils from Sacred Heart Primary School's gardening club arrived very promptly at 09.30 together with their headmaster Jared, all ready to set to work. © Clare Graham.
Our adult participants seemed keener on standing and chatting when they first arrived, though we did soon manage to prod them all into action. © Clare Graham.
Councillor Emmeline Owens, this year's Mayor of Wandsworth, kindly came along and spoke a few words to mark the occasion; this was especially appropriate as the memorial had originally been unveiled back in 1951 by the then Mayor of Battersea. © Clare Graham.
The schoolchildren had lots of questions for the Mayor, ranging from what her job might entail to whether her chain could possibly be real gold (yes). © Clare Graham.
Nearly there: Society Chair Jenny and OSC member John survey the beds. The brown stumps in the front corner of the near bed are lilies of the valley, on their way out for this winter but they should look great next spring. © Clare Graham.
Olivia, Catie and OSC member Chris congratulate themselves on a job well done. Our new plants included some climbers for the columns of the memorial shelter too, where those had been missing. © John Burn.
General view facing the other way the next morning. The drizzle had continued right through our planting session, turning to heavy rain that afternoon and overnight. Yet more rain was still falling when I took this photo - good news as this should help our new plants settle in and establish. © Clare Graham.