Other

Bedford Park panel

Erection date: 21/6/2014

Inscription

{The text on the front of the panel reads:}
You are standing at the heart of Bedford Park, described by John Betjeman in 1960 as "the most significant suburb built in the last century, probably the most significant in the Western world". To your right is St Michael and All Angels church, behind you the Tabard Inn and the former local Stores. Ahead of you in The Avenue is the building that housed the Social Club. These amenities formed the focus of the community that grew up here from 1875, when visionary developer Johnathan Carr started to build the distinctive homes that make up Bedford Park. He planned a new kind of estate, in which aesthetically acceptable houses at inexpensive rents would be set in an informal, village-like layout. The houses were designed in the Queen Anne style : the first by E. W. Godwin, the bulk by R. Norman Shaw - the most successful architect of his day.

Bedford Park pioneered concepts later used and formalised by the designers of the Garden City movement. It represents a turning point in the architecture and layout of suburban housing which flowered in the first half of the 20th century. After some of the finest houses were demolished, the Bedford Park Society was founded in 1963 with Betjeman as its first patron, to protect the amenity of the area. In 1967 356 houses were listed Grade 2, protecting their historic features internally and externally for future generations.

This sign is in memory of Leonard and Freda Darke, founding members of the Bedford Park Society.

On the back of the panel 8 Bedford Park men are featured, each with a paragraph of text, and, for some, a small portrait image. We’ve created a page for each of these in our Subjects commemorated list and, since the panel text is good, we’ve copied it onto the appropriate pages.

Since the panel fails to quote it we must give the Ballad of Bedford Park from St James Gazette of 1881:
Thus was a village builded
For all who are aesthete
Whose precious souls it fill did
With utter joy complete.

Site: Bedford Park panel (1 memorial)

W4, The Avenue, St Michael & All Angels Church

Comments are provided by Facebook, please ensure you are signed in here to see them

This section lists the subjects commemorated on the memorial on this page:
Bedford Park panel

Subjects commemorated i

Bedford Park Society

Conservation group. Co-founded by two local residents, architect Tom Affleck ...

Read More

Leonard and Freda Darke

At Arts and Humanities Research Council we found a brief biography of Leonard...

Read More

Maurice Adams

Architect. Born Maurice Bingham Adams. He was instrumental in the founding of...

Read More

Sir John Betjeman

Poet Laureate 1972 - 1984. Conservation campaigner. Credited with saving the ...

Read More

Jonathan Carr

Jonathan Thomas Carr. Founder of Bedford Park, the first garden suburb, in 18...

Read More

Show all 11

Nearby Memorials

Hutton Panels - Romans and Mithras

Hutton Panels - Romans and Mithras

EC4, Walbrook, Walbrook underground entrance

Two extensive information panels in the corner give the background to this unusual display, so we've transcribed them here: The station ...

3 subjects commemorated, 4 creators
Old Church Garden - Wesley tomb

Old Church Garden - Wesley tomb

W1, Marylebone High Street

We don't normally include graves but since this has been moved it is now effectively a memorial.

4 subjects commemorated
Dominico and Pilar Maestri

Dominico and Pilar Maestri

NW1, Cranleigh Street, Brook House

In our photo, at the top of the nearest cream-coloured panel on this building: "GB 1934" but we don't understand the 'GB'. The Maestri p...

1 subject commemorated
1 Poultry - Mappin & Webb clock

1 Poultry - Mappin & Webb clock

EC2, Poultry, 1

This clock is in the public atrium to the new building and is the nearest we get to a memorial for the Mappin and Webb building, on its o...

1 subject commemorated
Gold post box - Westminster

Gold post box - Westminster

SW1, Tothill Street

The plaque is a nasty modern thing, as they are on all these Olympic boxes, so on each one we try to find other more interesting features...

1 subject commemorated, 2 creators

Previously viewed

Otto Schade

Otto Schade

Artist and architect.  Born Chile.  We can'f find a picture of him so we are using one of his extraordinary art works instead.

Person, Art, Chile

1 memorial
Belgium's Gratitude

Belgium's Gratitude

WC2, Victoria Embankment

Present at the unveiling: Princess Clementine of Belgium, several members of the Royal Family, M. Delacroix - the Belgian Premier, Lord ...

2 subjects commemorated, 2 creators
John Prescott

John Prescott

Born in Wales as John Leslie Prescott. Deputy PM 1997 to 2007. During the 2001 election campaign he punched a protester who had hit him with an egg, and it was captured on camera. 2010 made Baron P...

Person, Politics & Administration, Wales

2 memorials
Carnegie Hero Fund Trust

Carnegie Hero Fund Trust

From the Trust's website: "In 1886, over 20 years before the Carnegie Hero Fund was established in the UK, {Andrew} Carnegie heard about the death of a Dunfermline boy who drowned in an heroic atte...

Group, Benefactor

1 memorial
Hackney Council

Hackney Council

Hackney Council was created in 1965 from the 3 Metropolitan Borough Councils of Hackney, Shoreditch and Stoke Newington, all three of which had been created in 1900. Previously they had been paris...

Group, Politics & Administration

61 memorials