![Furnival Gardens 08](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b1/Furnival_Gardens_08.JPG)
Furnival Gardens (also spelt Furnivall Gardens) is a park in Hammersmith alongside the river Thames.
It was once the location of the mouth of
Hammersmith Creek, which had an active fishing trade until about 200 years ago. The creek was filled in during 1936.
In 1948, it was decided that there should be a public open space on bomb-damaged land between the river and the Great West Road, to coincide with the 1951
Festival of Britain
The Festival of Britain was a national exhibition and fair that reached millions of visitors throughout the United Kingdom in the summer of 1951. Historian Kenneth O. Morgan says the Festival was a "triumphant success" during which people:
...
. The new riverside park was named after the scholar Dr
Frederick James Furnivall
Frederick James Furnivall (4 February 1825 – 2 July 1910) was an English philologist, best known as one of the co-creators of the '' New English Dictionary''. He founded a number of learned societies on early English literature and made pio ...
, who founded what is now the
Furnivall Sculling Club
Furnivall Sculling Club is a rowing club based on the Tideway in Hammersmith, London. It was for a time called Hammersmith Sculling Club. It was founded in 1896 by Frederick Furnivall, after whom the riverside Furnivall Gardens a few metres awa ...
in 1896. A garden area was created on what had been the Hammersmith Friends Meeting House burial ground, destroyed by a flying bomb in the war.
In 1963, a
street lamp
A street is a public thoroughfare in a built environment. It is a public parcel of landform, land adjoining buildings in an urban area, urban context, on which people may freely assemble, interact, and move about. A street can be as simple as ...
that had formerly been in
West Berlin
West Berlin (german: Berlin (West) or , ) was a political enclave which comprised the western part of Berlin during the years of the Cold War. Although West Berlin was de jure not part of West Germany, lacked any sovereignty, and was under mi ...
was given by
Willy Brandt
Willy Brandt (; born Herbert Ernst Karl Frahm; 18 December 1913 – 8 October 1992) was a German politician and statesman who was leader of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) from 1964 to 1987 and served as the chancellor of West Ge ...
, then Mayor of West Berlin, to mark Hammersmith's twinning with the Berlin (previously West Berlin) district of
Neukölln. It now stands on the wall of
Westcott Lodge, facing the gardens.
Below it is a plaque which reads: "The lamp above this plaque was formerly used to light a street in West Berlin. It was presented by Herr Willi Brandt, Mayor of West Berlin to Councillor Stanley Atkins, L. P., The Worshipful the Mayor of Hammersmith, as a token of friendship between the two communities on the occasion of the Jumelage held in this Borough, 1st June 1963."
References
Parks and open spaces in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham
Common land in London
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