Fanny Wilkinson (1855–1951) was a British landscape designer. She was the first professional female landscape designer in Britain, and responsible for the design and the layout of more than 75 public gardens across London in the late 19th century.

Early life

Fanny Wilkinson was born in 1855 in

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

, the daughter of Matthew Eason Wilkinson, a prominent doctor in the city and a president of the

British Medical Association The British Medical Association (BMA) is a registered trade union for doctors in the United Kingdom. The association does not regulate or certify doctors, a responsibility which lies with the General Medical Council. The association's headquar ...

, and his wife, Louisa.

Education

She was educated ‘privately and abroad’, but by the end of 1883 she had completed an 18-month course at the Crystal Palace School of Landscape Gardening and Practical Horticulture in London, at a time when such classes were intended only for men. She later said that 'I was always fond of gardening as a child, and I took it up because I felt it suited me, and I wanted to do something …’. She may have been inspired by the grounds of

Middlethorpe Hall Middlethorpe Hall is a 17th-century English country house standing in of grounds in Middlethorpe, York, North Yorkshire. It is a perfectly symmetrical red brick and stone house built in 1699 and since 2008 has been owned by The National Trus ...

, the family residence in Yorkshire.

Career

In 1884 she was elected as honorary gardener to the

Metropolitan Public Gardens Association The Metropolitan Public Gardens Association (also known as the MPGA) is a charity in London for the purposes of the preservation of public parks and gardens, established in 1882. It facilitated the creation of new public open spaces, including f ...

but two years later this was changed to a professional position for which she was paid a fee. In an interview in 1890 she commented that ‘I certainly do not let myself be underpaid as many women do. … I know my profession and charge accordingly, as all women should do.’ Among the many public gardens across London that she planned and that were laid out under her supervision were Goldsmith’s Square, Hackney; Myatt’s Fields Park, Camberwell;

Paddington Street Gardens Paddington Street Gardens are two small public gardens located either side of Paddington Street in the Marylebone area of London. The larger south garden contains a children's playground. History The gardens were built in the 18th century as ad ...

, Marylebone;

Meath Gardens Meath Gardens is a park in Bethnal Green in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets in East London, England, and opened to the public in 1894. Before it became a park, it was the Victoria Park Cemetery. Victoria Park Cemetery Land for Victoria ...

, Bethnal Green; and the churchyard of St John, Smith Square, Westminster. In 1887 Fanny Wilkinson was also working as a landscape designer to the Kyrle Society, which aimed to ‘bring beauty to the lives of the poor’. Through the society she was commissioned to design

Vauxhall Park Vauxhall Park is a Green Flag Award-winning municipal park in Vauxhall, South London, run by Lambeth Council. It occupies an 8.5-acre site, and was created at a cost of around £45,000, following a public campaign led by the suffragist Millicent ...

, opened in 1890. This was created on land saved from development and purchased by Henry Fawcett and

Millicent Garrett Fawcett Dame Millicent Garrett Fawcett (née Garrett; 11 June 1847 – 5 August 1929) was an English politician, writer and feminist. She campaigned for women's suffrage by legal change and in 1897–1919 led Britain's largest women's rights associati ...

; Millicent and her sisters became good friends of Fanny. Fanny's sister Louisa married Millicent’s brother. In 1902 she also became the first female Principal of

Swanley Horticultural College Swanley Horticultural College, founded in , was a college of horticulture in Hextable, Kent, England. It originally took only male students but by 1894 the majority of students were female and it became a women-only institution in 1903. Early hi ...

and in that post she encouraged other women to enter the profession. She was also a founder member of the Women’s Agricultural and Horticultural International Union (1899), through which women were recruited to sustain agriculture and food production during the First World War.

Commemoration

In 2022

English Heritage English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, medieval castles, Roman forts and country houses. The charity states that i ...

announced that Fanny Wilkinson would be commemorated with a

blue plaque A blue plaque is a permanent sign installed in a public place in the United Kingdom and elsewhere to commemorate a link between that location and a famous person, event, or former building on the site, serving as a historical marker. The term i ...

at her former home in

Bloomsbury Bloomsbury is a district in the West End of London. It is considered a fashionable residential area, and is the location of numerous cultural, intellectual, and educational institutions. Bloomsbury is home of the British Museum, the largest mus ...

, London, later that year. She was nominated for the plaque by the

, the organisation which kickstarted her professional career.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wilkinson, Fanny 1855 births 1951 deaths People from Manchester British landscape and garden designers