American garden blooms to honour botanist Collinson

The past has been brought into the present at Peckham this week by a Californian woman with a keen interest in an 18th century botanist who once lived in the area, writes Yann Tear.

The new American Garden in Peckham Rye Park opened on Monday. Freshly planted and fitted with smart new seats, the Garden – to the east of Sexby Garden – marks the end of a six-year project for Nancy Coleman-Frank.

A proud feature of Peckham Rye Park when it opened in 1907 was its fashionable American Garden. Nancy, visiting from California in 2017, was dismayed to find it had almost entirely disappeared.

Nancy came to Peckham to research the life of Peter Collinson, and now settled in Peckham, she resolved to create a new American Garden to commemorate and celebrate Collinson.

She said: “I was astonished to find Collinson had been forgotten by Peckham.

He lived here for over 50 years, his world-famous garden, visited by all the important botanists of the time, had plants found nowhere else in the country.

“His seed and plant exchange with John Bartram of Philadelphia had an enormous influence on English gardens.”

Nancy’s ideas convinced Southwark council, who responded with a grant to get the project for the new garden on the site of the original one started. And a collaboration was formed.

Peter Collinson (1694-1768) Collinson lived in Peckham from the age of two, and became passionate about gardens as a child after visiting local gardens with his grandmother.

A Quaker, he became part of a trading network suppling high quality silks and linens through his family’s shop. As part of international trading arrangements, he persuaded ship captains to bring botanical seeds and specimens to this country.

This led to regular exchanges of seeds with fellow Quaker John Bartram of Philadelphia, resulting in the introduction of more than 150 new species, mostly from North America, to England.

With Collinson’s encouragement and help, Bertram was to become the pre-eminent American naturalist of his time.

By 1735, Collinson’s garden in Peckham had become an attraction for botanists who came from all over the world. Visitors included the American scientist and statesman Benjamin Frankiln and two of the most famous botanical artists of the time, Georg Ehret and Mark Catesby.

Collinson revolutionised the design of English gardens by providing new American varieties of plants for them.

While natural history was his main interest, Collinson’s enthusiasm went beyond that.

His examination of fossils led him to an understanding of processes of extinction.

His interest in physics resulted in encouragement for Benjamin Franklin’s electrical experiments.

He was a member of the Royal Society and had interests in the social developments of the time including the London Foundling Hospital and the Library Company of Philadelphia.

No trace remains of Collinson’s garden in Peckham, and its exact site is unknown. As meticulous as Collinson was in describing his friends’ gardens and plants, he failed to specify where he lived.

No memorial to him exists to his time in Peckham, apart from the new American Garden.

Also key to this project was Lord Harris of Peckham, the philanthropist whose local roots run deep.

Born in Peckham, Lord Harris build a hugely successful business starting from his father’s market stall in Rye Lane.

He was made a life peer as Baron Harris of Peckham in January 1996. Much of his time is dedicated to improving education in struggling schools and his chain of Harris Academies includes schools in Peckham, Bermondsey and East Dulwich.

A few years ago, he sat with Nancy on a park bench looking at the site of the old garden and was taken with Nancy’s vision of what this patch of scrubland could become.
She says she nearly fell off the bench when he offered to make a substantial donation.

She set up a charity to raise funds to design the garden, treat the soil and buy plants. Other major grants then came in from the Local Postcode Trust and environmentalist heritage backers Viridor Credits.

Other grants came from Stanley Smith Horticultural Trust and the Finnis Scott Foundation and the US embassy.

Nancy, who is a committee member of Peckham Heritage Regeneration Project, the Peckham Society, is often found watering the garden now – it takes more than four hours, so the work is not over yet.

She said: “It’s all been worth it.”

 

Main Picture: The American garden in Peckham Rye Park Picture: Nancy Coleman-Frank