Roehampton Allotments open as part of the National Garden Scheme - Sunday 21st July

The Roehampton Garden Society allotments on the Dover House Estate will be as part of the National Garden Scheme from 2pm - 5pm on Sunday 21st July.

Adult Admission £4 - children free

Tea, Cake & Plants for sale - all proceeds to charity

The Roehampton Estate Garden Society was founded at the outset in 1922 of the creation of the Dover House Estate. It later incorporated the Roehampton Horticultural Society, founded in 1873, making the renamed Roehampton Garden Society the oldest horticultural society in London.

The Doverhouse Estate was built by the London County Council after WW1, on the land of two large mansions, Dover Park and Putney Park House. The land, some 94 acres, was once upon a time a royal deer park and, in the twenties, still an area of great natural beauty.

The estate contained over one thousand homes and three allotment sites were incorporated from the outset. Lying behind Dover House Road, each allotment site was surrounded by houses. Sites 1 and 3 were approximately 3 acres each and Site 2 was smaller at 2 acres. Sites 1 and 3 each had 70 plots and Site 2 had 40.

Site 1 was to be developed in 1972, Site 3 in 1973 and Site 2, the smallest site, at some time in the future.

In March 1972, the Putney Society, together with the Roehampton Garden Society and the Wandsworth Historical Society published a Joint Report recommending, among much else, that all three allotment sites should be retained. It was too late to save Site 1, but the Report was successful in saving Sites 2 and 3, whose numbering is retained to this day.