Lambeth Palace Garden 

‘Miss Webb had expressed an interest in mulberries and Mr Loudon had arranged to see one. Lambeth Palace was said to have the oldest mulberry tree in England and he was on friendly terms with the gardener. They found the tree in good health and he gave them a pot of its delicious berries. Unlike the grass and most plants in the archbishop’s garden, the mulberry was unaffected by smoke from the surrounding manufacturies.’  This is a quote from The Claudians: gardens, landscapes, reason and faith: John Claudius Loudon and Claudius Buchanan, Tom Turner (Kindle, 2024). 

Exploring the Mulberry Tree and Gardens of Lambeth Palace

An old mulberry of Lambeth Palace Gardens is said to have been planted there by Cardinal Pole in 1559, only eleven years after the introduction of the mulberry to England. Thomas Allen wrote, in The History and Antiquities of the Parish of Lambeth, and the Archiepiscopal Palace: Including Biographical Sketches (1826) that: 'Much of the beauty of the extensive grounds belonging to Lambeth palace is owing to the late archbishop, who, besides considerably, enlarging them, made many improvements, and caused the whole to be laid out with great taste. The park and gardens, before the recent additions made to them, were estimated at about thirteen acres; b they pow contain at least eighteen. Of this number the kitchen garden occupies between three or four acres, and has been walled in at a great expense. This, however, it amply repays by the quantity of fruit and vegetables it produces. These gardens have long been remarked for containing two uncommonly fine fig-trees, traditionally reported to have been planted by Cardinal Pole, and fixed against that part of the palace believed to be founded by him. They are of the white Marseilles sort, and still bear delicious fruit. They cover a surface of more than fifty feet in height and forty in breadth. The circumference of the southernmost of these trees is twenty-eight inches, of the other twenty-one. On the south side of the building, in a small private garden, is another tree of the same kind and age; its circumference at bottom twenty eight inches. At a small distance from the palace stood formerly a curious summer-house (solarium), built in the time of Archbishop Cranmer, after an ingenious design of his chaplain, Dr. John Ponet, or Poynet, who had great skill and taste in works of this kind. a This was repaired by Archbishop Parker, but falling very much to decay was some time since removed, and its site is now not exactly known. The small garden next the Thames was walled and embanked by Archbishop Cornwallis. On the first of January 1779, a dreadful storm, supposed equal to that of 1703, threw down three chimneys, unroofed a great part of the palace, and destroyed seventeen large timber trees in these gardens.’

The Role of Lambeth Palace Gardens in London's Horticultural Heritage

Lambeth Palace Gardens have long played a crucial role in London's horticultural history, serving as both a symbol of ecclesiastical power and a retreat for quiet contemplation. Over the centuries, the gardens have undergone several transformations, reflecting the tastes and influences of the archbishops who resided there. The mulberry tree, believed to be planted by Cardinal Pole in 1559, is just one of many botanical treasures within the gardens. This ancient tree stands as a testament to the enduring nature of Lambeth Palace Gardens amidst the surrounding urban development and industrialisation, preserving a slice of natural history in the heart of London.