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Bonnington Square, LONDON, SW8 1TF

Victorian houses in the north-eastern corner of the square.

In earlier times, a Georgian Terrace with long back gardens fronted onto Harleyford Road, but the majority of the houses were demolished in the early 1970s. The chance to site a community garden here was realised in 1984 by the Vauxhall Housing Co-operative, who formed the Harleyford Road Garden Association to carry out a feasibility study with the help of a small grant. Most of the land belonged to the Greater London Council and when this was abolished in 1986, lease negotiations became protracted. The land finally came under the Borough Council's Housing Department, from whom the Garden Association now hold a management lease. Work on the design and layout of the site began in 1986 and Harleyford Road Community Garden was officially opened two years later. It had already started to be used by local people, however, such is the demand for open space in this very built-up part of the Borough.

This small garden has been established on a Second World War bomb site; the story is told here: http://bonningtonsquaregarden.org.uk/index.html .

A plaque between the nearer pair is inscribed, "The Parade 1821", while the far group is named "Olum Terrace 1826" in the parapet. Grade II listed.

Bonnington Square is a remarkably secluded spot in the triangle formed by Harleyford Road and South Lambeth Road. The houses were originally built for railway workers in the 1870s (the former Nine Elms Depot being nearby). They were eventually compulsorily purchased by the Greater London Council in the 1970s and subsequently sold to residents by Lambeth Council in the late 1990s.

Picture taken from Bonnington Square

Bonnington Square in Vauxhall is an amazing oasis to stumble across near to the high-rise towers of Vauxhall and area. It can be reached via a passageway through a house from Harleyford Road Community Garden and on the other side you reach a square of houses built in the 1870s in order to house railway workers. By the late 1970s, Bonnington Square was compulsorily purchased for the Inner London Education Authority, which intended to demolish it in order to build a new school. A Turkish shopkeeper in one of the buildings managed to prevent the demolition through legal means during the period in which all the houses' occupants were departing, and shortly afterward squatters began moving into the vacated buildings. It has a secret garden at the centre (known as the Pleasure Garden), leafy overgrown corners, vines climbing up the house fronts and both tropical and native trees planted in every available space. This is the Pleasure Garden. The information board at the entrance can be seen at https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/6998018 More about the place can be seen at https://livinglondonhistory.com/the-fascinating-story-of-vauxhalls-secret-jungle-neighbourhood/ The writer of this post says that he has found one of his new secret spots in London and I agree.

Bonnington Square in Vauxhall is an amazing oasis to stumble across near to the high-rise towers of Vauxhall and area. It can be reached via a passageway through a house from Harleyford Road Community Garden and on the other side you reach a square of houses built in the 1870s in order to house railway workers. By the late 1970s, Bonnington Square was compulsorily purchased for the Inner London Education Authority, which intended to demolish it in order to build a new school. A Turkish shopkeeper in one of the buildings managed to prevent the demolition through legal means during the period in which all the houses' occupants were departing, and shortly afterward squatters began moving into the vacated buildings. It has a secret garden at the centre (known as the Pleasure Garden), leafy overgrown corners, vines climbing up the house fronts and both tropical and native trees planted in every available space. This is the Pleasure Garden. The information board at the entrance can be seen at https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/6998018 More about the place can be seen at https://livinglondonhistory.com/the-fascinating-story-of-vauxhalls-secret-jungle-neighbourhood/ The writer of this post says that he has found one of his new secret spots in London and I agree.

The wheel in Bonnington Square dates from the 1860s and was rescued from a nearby marble factory as it was being demolished. Bonnington Square in Vauxhall is an amazing oasis to stumble across near to the high-rise towers of Vauxhall and area. It can be reached via a passageway through a house from Harleyford Road Community Garden and on the other side you reach a square of houses built in the 1870s in order to house railway workers. By the late 1970s, Bonnington Square was compulsorily purchased for the Inner London Education Authority, which intended to demolish it in order to build a new school. A Turkish shopkeeper in one of the buildings managed to prevent the demolition through legal means during the period in which all the houses' occupants were departing, and shortly afterward squatters began moving into the vacated buildings. It has a secret garden at the centre (known as the Pleasure Garden), leafy overgrown corners, vines climbing up the house fronts and both tropical and native trees planted in every available space. This is the Pleasure Garden. The information board at the entrance can be seen at https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/6998018 More about the place can be seen at https://livinglondonhistory.com/the-fascinating-story-of-vauxhalls-secret-jungle-neighbourhood/ The writer of this post says that he has found one of his new secret spots in London and I agree.