Dulwich and its neighbourhood is a green oasis bejewelled by its gardens - many magnificent, all inspirational, and all backed by astonishing depths of gardening knowledge. Each Spring the Gardens group publishes a comprehensive “Dulwich Gardens open for charity” booklet, with details of the local gardens that are open to the public during the year.
The group also organises an annual garden talk and an annual coach tour to one or more gardens of national importance, as well as occasional local visits. Details of these events, which are open to all members of the Dulwich Society and their friends, are included in the Society’s quarterly Journal and its monthly eNewsletter.
We contribute articles to the Society’s Journal, and generally we support gardening and related activities in our area. The Dulwich Society is an affiliated society of the Royal Horticultural Society. The Gardens group normally meets four times a year. If you are interested in joining the group, please contact Celia Randell.
Gardens Group terms of reference (PDF)
Contact: Celia Randell,
10.30am, Thursday 24 September, at Dulwich Picture Gallery, Gallery Road, SE21 7AD
Join us for a special in-person tour of the beautiful Dulwich Picture Gallery Gardens. Dulwich Picture Gallery Head Gardener Jack Townson will guide us around the gardens, sharing tips for the successful planting and maintenance of a public space in extreme weather, insights into integrating sculpture and landscape and giving a glimpse of his longer term vision for the garden.
Tickets £6.13 for members, £11.55 for non-members
To join the Society (£10 pa) click here: https://www.dulwichsociety.com/membership
Photo credit: Dan Watts
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Tuesday 9 June, 11.30am
Tucked away behind the coffee shops and offices surrounding Smithfield market are the fascinating and very extensive gardens of the historic Charterhouse. This green oasis in the City, including the publicly-accessed Charterhouse Square with its majestic plane trees and wildflowers, has been classified as a Site of Importance for Nature Conservation. Traditional planting and innovative ideas are combined in six walled courtyard gardens, designed for the relaxation of the residents of the charitable Foundation. Each tranquil garden is very different, but all are enhanced by the ancient buildings which surround them. Our guide will be the inspirational Head Gardener, Justin Dennis, who is leading an extensive programme to renovate the gardens and increase their biodiversity, while enhancing the best of the old. We will see unusual plants being trialled for resistance to climate change, as well as romantic climbing roses clothing the Tudor walls and mixed borders at their flowering peak. Outstanding trees include: venerable mulberries, huge magnolias and a towering specimen of the Chinese Golden Rain Tree, Koelreutaria paniculata, sheltering behind a wall onto the Clerkenwell Road.
The tour will commence at 11.30am and last about one hour; light refreshments following the tour are included. The Charterhouse is reached easily from Dulwich by Thameslink to Farringdon station, from where it is a short walk, less than 10 minutes. Tickets £20 inc refreshments, available from 31 March here.
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Our brochure, Dulwich Gardens Open for Charity 2026, has been distributed to all members of the Dulwich Society and to local garden centres and other outlets. Do visit and support the gardens. A lovely garden (or group of two, three or even more), teas and the chance to buy plants that you may just have seen, all at excellent value and for good causes, makes for a great outing.
Download the Dulwich Gardens Open for Charity brochure for more information.
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Friday 17 April 2026, 10.30am
We have been fortunate to be able to organise a private tour of the grounds and buildings of Royal Hospital Chelsea, conducted by the Head of Grounds and Gardens, Ric Glenn, formerly of Dulwich Park. We will be shown the historic and heritage landscaping around the Wren buildings, plus the less formal Ranelagh gardens, two small gardens in the grounds that started life as Chelsea Flower Show exhibits, Ric's own dry garden, the allotments and the greenhouses; the tour will be completed with a visit to the Great Hall and the very beautiful Chapel, led by a Chelsea Pensioner guide. The tour will last 1½ to 2 hours and will involve a fair amount of (flat) walking. There are ample toilets, a cafe, shop and small museum.
We will meet at the Soane Stable yard, accessed via the Chelsea Gate. A map with comprehensive transport instructions will be sent to all participants. Tickets £16, available here.
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Wednesday 24 June 2026, 9.30am-5.15pm
Join us on our day trip to West Sussex, at the foot of the South Downs, to visit Parham House and Gardens. Parham is one of the country’s finest Elizabethan houses and the trip includes a guided tour of the garden, which consists of seven acres of Pleasure Grounds, laid out in the 18th century, with a lake, a brick and turf maze and many specimen trees. The old four-acre Walled Garden contains romantic wide herbaceous borders, a rose garden, a cut flower garden, a vegetable garden, an orchard and a 1920s Wendy House. A splendid Greenhouse, also dating from the 1920s, has a fine display of pelargoniums and other tender plants. Please bring bags as there will be plants for sale.
The coach will leave from the front entrance to Dulwich Picture Gallery, College Road, SE21 7BG – 9.15am for a prompt 9.30am departure. Return will be at around 5/5.15pm. Tickets, including transport and entrance, are £42 each and may be purchased through Ticket Tailor here or by sending a cheque (payable to The Dulwich Society) with the names of the people you are booking for, your email address, mobile phone number and a stamped, addressed envelope to Katharine St John-Brooks, 93 Dulwich Village, London SE21 7BJ. No refund will be given in the event of your subsequent cancellation. Anyone who wants to visit the house will need to pay an additional £4 at the ticket kiosk. Lunch can be ordered in advance (details nearer the time). No refund will be given in the event of your subsequent cancellation. All members of Dulwich Society and friends are welcome. Early booking is advised.
Photo by kind permission of Parham House and Gardens, West Sussex
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Our brochure, Dulwich Gardens Open for Charity 2025, has been distributed to all members of the Dulwich Society and to local garden centres and other outlets. Do visit and support the gardens, a lovely garden (or group of two, three or even more), teas and the chance to buy plants that you may just have seen, all at excellent value and for good causes, makes for a great outing.
Download the Dulwich Gardens Open for Charity brochure for more information.
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Wednesday 4 June 2025, 10am-11am
We have arranged a guided tour of Horniman Museum Gardens led by the Head of Horticulture, Errol Fernandez. Errol will provide a general tour of the garden, focusing on sustainable practice, supporting biodiversity and creating a beautiful and immersive public garden experience. The gardens should be looking wonderful in June for our visit, which will last about an hour. Tickets here for the visit are £8, available via TicketTailor here, with the proceeds going to the Horniman’s 125th Anniversary Appeal. Please meet at the main entrance to the museum.
Photo credit Horniman Museum
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Wednesday 11 June 2025, 8.45am-5.30pm
Join us on our day trip to Kent, starting with a visit to Sissinghurst Castle Garden, the flagship National Trust garden near Cranbrook. Heralded for its beauty and diversity, the garden is a result of the creative tension between Harold Nicolson's formal design and the exuberant planting of Vita Sackville-West. In June, the famous white garden will be in its prime. Sissinghurst has its own plant nursery on site which provides plants for the garden and grows upward of 15,000 plants for sale in the plant shop which also stocks an extensive range of Sarah Raven and Jekka herb seeds. Please bring bags.
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Illustrated talk 7.30pm, Wednesday 16 April 2025 at Bell House, 27 College Rd, SE21 7BG
The Garden Group’s Spring gardens talk will be by Alison Marsden. Does your front garden cut the mustard? Are you greeted by a garden that emphasises the best of your house, and that is beautiful in its own right? In her illustrated talk, Alison Marsden will show you how to use design, materials, pots and plants to provide a wow factor, support the scale and style of your house, and bring year-round interest. Alison is an experienced gardening tutor and writer, with a particular interest in gardening for wellbeing, and after the talk there will be an opportunity to meet her over a glass of wine. The talk is at Bell House, College Rd, with any surplus going towards its garden activities. Tickets available here £10 inc. a glass of wine.
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11am, Sunday 13 October 2024 Dulwich Society fungus walk in Dulwich Park
Join Fabrice Boltho for a guided fungus walk in Dulwich Park, sponsored by the Dulwich Society. As former countryside with ancient trees and some woodland, the park is home to a wide variety of mushrooms, brackets, jellies and slime moulds, all of which play important roles in its ecology that will be explained during the walk. Fabrice leads fungus identification sessions at the South London Botanical Institute (SLBI).
Tickets for the walk are limited and cost £7 each, with all proceeds to the SLBI, available: https://buytickets.at/dulwichsocietyvisit/1327318
Meet at 11am outside Dulwich Park café, SE21 7BQ. The walk will last about 1½ hours.
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Wednesday 18 September 2024, 11am-12.15pm - Fulham Palace Gardens, Bishop's Avenue, SW6 6EA
The Dulwich Society Gardens Group has arranged a guided tour of these historic Grade II* listed gardens. Fulham Palace was the home of the Bishops of London until the 1970s. The 'botanising bishop', Bishop Compton, put the gardens on the horticultural map in the 17th Century as an avid collector of exotic plants and trees from around the world. Subsequent bishops altered the gardens to their own tastes with significant introductions including the first magnolia to be grown in Europe. Within the 13 acres, there is a three-acre walled garden, largely laid out in the 18th Century; a knot garden laid out in the 1830s; and a magnificent vinery. The garden was fully restored in 2011 and has a café on site. Our guided tour will last approximately 75 minutes. Tickets are £10 and available via TicketTailor here.
Transport: the garden can be reached most easily from Putney Bridge station (District Line from Victoria), c.5-minute walk; an alternative is the 37 bus to Putney and a c.15-minute walk or a bus across Putney Bridge.
Photo credit: Matthew Bruce
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Sunday 7 July 2024, 3pm-4.15pm - Grange Lane, SE21 7LH
The Dulwich Society Gardens Group has arranged a visit to Grange Lane Allotments, the allotments with arguably the best view in London. Normally open only to its 250 members, this is a chance to look around, learn about its organisation and facilities, and see how different members work their plots and deal with the gardening challenges they face.
Meet inside the main entrance to the allotments, opposite the entrance to Dulwich & Sydenham Hill Golf Club. Parking is available in Grange Lane. One of their “social afternoons“ will be going on at their meeting hut. Light refreshments will be provided, and our visit will last about an hour. All members of the Dulwich Society and friends are welcome. There is no charge for the visit, but places are limited and must be booked in advance via Ticket Tailor here.
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