Description
Allens Gardens forms a strip of communal garden behind a development of 10 blocks of 3-storey flats on Bethune Road built in 1874 by Matthew Allen, from whom the site takes its name. He was in partnership with the Improved Industrial Dwellings Company. The garden was for the use of residents, with greenhouses and wash houses as well as recreational facilities. The Bethune Lawn Tennis and Bowling Club was based here until 1929. The gardens were later publicly accessible, a series of garden 'rooms'. Since 2004 a compartment in the south has become an urban market garden run by Growing Communities, with raised beds, fruit trees, and an eco-building.
Practical Information
| Site location | Bethune Road/Manor Road |
|---|---|
| Postcode | N16 5BD |
| What3Words | ///caring.armed.boring |
| Type of Site | Public Gardens |
| Borough | Hackney |
| Open to Public | Yes |
| Opening Times | 7.30am - dusk (summer 9.30pm, winter 4pm). Market Garden: Mondays 10am-4pm. |
| Facilities | Play area. Growing Communities market garden: Eco-building available for hire. Adventure Playground |
| Events | Self-guided tours of market garden |
| Public Transport | Rail: Stoke Newington. Bus 106 |
| Research Updated | 1 March 2018 |
| Last Updated | 18 October 2026 |
Full description
Allens Gardens run along the back of housing on the east side of Bethune Road, which was built in 1874 by Matthew Allen of Finsbury, who was from a Stoke Newington Quaker family. He had connections with Sydney Waterlow and was in partnership with the Improved Industrial Dwellings Company. His Bethune Road development consisted of ten blocks of 3-storey self-contained 'middle-class flats in a generously leafy setting' in grey brick and an artificial stone patented by Allen. Eight of the blocks backed onto communal gardens, which were laid out with greenhouses and wash houses, and included a croquet lawn, bowling green, rooms for billiards and dancing, and looked after by a gardener. The development attracted the admiration of architects of the time (coverage in Building News, 31/12/1875; The Builder, 24/6/1876; Architects Journal 18/10/1972; The Times 21/2/1875). Until 1929, Bethune Lawn Tennis and Bowling Club was in existence here.
The site has the atmosphere of a secret garden, and is an elongated strip of land behind the east side of Bethune Road bordered at the back by the railway line. Close to the southern entrance near the corner of Manor Road the driveway leads to an area of lawn, with the remains of a small wooden pavilion. Immediately behind the houses, the layout resembles a series of garden 'rooms' of different characters, including a playground, areas of ornamental planting, a woodland area. A path runs north/south through the site between the two entrances with a strip of lawn, trees and shrubberies, in some places wooded. The east side of the path has a wilder area separated in some places by remains of old brick walling, and in others with new walling. At the north is an area of hummocky grass perhaps created as a cycle or play area, while near the southern end is another remnant of a brick building.
In February 2004 this part of the garden became the site of one of Growing Communities' urban market gardens, joining those at Springfield Park (q.v.) and Clissold Park (q.v.), where the project began in 1996. Growing Communities, a community-led organisation based in Hackney, had established a market garden further up Bethune Road, which it had to vacate when the land was sold, so moved raised beds, fruit trees, herbs and over 7 tonnes of organic topsoil to Allens Gardens. The garden now has raised beds full of salad leaves, organic fruit trees along one wall, a pond, wildlife area, greenhouse, shed and an eco building with an operational compost toilet and a living Sedum roof. The market gardens at Allens Gardens, Clissold Park and Springfield Park are the project's main growing sites. All three are certified by the Soil Association and were the first organically certified food growing land in London. The project specialises in salad leaves and is the only London box scheme to include organic salad grown in Hackney in its vegetable bags. They employ a part-time Grower and and have several self-employed ‘Patchwork Farmers', one of whom runs Allens Gardens on most Mondays from 10-4pm. Anyone wishing to volunteer at the market garden should consult Growing Communities' website to check if the garden will be open on the Monday they would like to visit.
The site has the atmosphere of a secret garden, and is an elongated strip of land behind the east side of Bethune Road bordered at the back by the railway line. Close to the southern entrance near the corner of Manor Road the driveway leads to an area of lawn, with the remains of a small wooden pavilion. Immediately behind the houses, the layout resembles a series of garden 'rooms' of different characters, including a playground, areas of ornamental planting, a woodland area. A path runs north/south through the site between the two entrances with a strip of lawn, trees and shrubberies, in some places wooded. The east side of the path has a wilder area separated in some places by remains of old brick walling, and in others with new walling. At the north is an area of hummocky grass perhaps created as a cycle or play area, while near the southern end is another remnant of a brick building.
In February 2004 this part of the garden became the site of one of Growing Communities' urban market gardens, joining those at Springfield Park (q.v.) and Clissold Park (q.v.), where the project began in 1996. Growing Communities, a community-led organisation based in Hackney, had established a market garden further up Bethune Road, which it had to vacate when the land was sold, so moved raised beds, fruit trees, herbs and over 7 tonnes of organic topsoil to Allens Gardens. The garden now has raised beds full of salad leaves, organic fruit trees along one wall, a pond, wildlife area, greenhouse, shed and an eco building with an operational compost toilet and a living Sedum roof. The market gardens at Allens Gardens, Clissold Park and Springfield Park are the project's main growing sites. All three are certified by the Soil Association and were the first organically certified food growing land in London. The project specialises in salad leaves and is the only London box scheme to include organic salad grown in Hackney in its vegetable bags. They employ a part-time Grower and and have several self-employed ‘Patchwork Farmers', one of whom runs Allens Gardens on most Mondays from 10-4pm. Anyone wishing to volunteer at the market garden should consult Growing Communities' website to check if the garden will be open on the Monday they would like to visit.
Further Information
| Grid Reference | TQ332872 |
|---|---|
| Site Ownership | LB Hackney |
| Site Management | LBH - Grounds Maintenance / Growing Communities |
| Dates | 1873-75 |
| Designers | M Allen |
| Listed Structures | LBII: 2-32 and 34-56 Bethune Road and forecourt walls |
| On National Heritage List for England (NHLE), Parks & Gardens | No |
| Registered common or village green on Commons Registration Act 1965 | No |
| Protected under London Squares Preservation Act 1931 | No |
| Local Authority | Hackney |
| In Conservation Area | No |
| Tree Preservation Order | Not known |
| Nature Conservation Area | Yes |
| Green Belt | No |
| Metropolitan Open Land | No |
| Special Policy Area | No |
| Other LA Designation | Open Space |
Please note the Inventory and its content are provided for your general information only and are subject to change. It is your responsibility to check the accuracy.
Nearby parks and gardens
* on The National Heritage List for England, Parks & Gardens
Abney Park Cemetery, one of London's 'magnificent seven' private cemeteries, opened in 1840 to meet the need for Non-Conformist burial. The chosen site was formerly part of the grounds of Fleetwood House and Abney House, both important as meeting places for Dissenters; hymn-writer Isaac Watts stayed in both houses and has a monument in the cemetery. With a fine chapel as the centrepiece, it was laid out as a garden cemetery and landscaped by George Loddiges with plants supplied from his nursery in Hackney. It had an extensive arboretum and a rosarium, and some earlier features from the former grounds were retained. It was enlarged in 1843, again landscaped by Loddiges, and continued to develop until the 1870s. Many important Non-conformists have been buried here. Now run by Abney Park Trust, it is managed as a nature reserve.
Abney Park Cemetery, one of London's 'magnificent seven' private cemeteries, opened in 1840 to meet the need for Non-Conformist burial. The chosen site was formerly part of the grounds of Fleetwood House and Abney House, both important as meeting places for Dissenters; hymn-writer Isaac Watts stayed in both houses and has a monument in the cemetery. With a fine chapel as the centrepiece, it was laid out as a garden cemetery and landscaped by George Loddiges with plants supplied from his nursery in Hackney. It had an extensive arboretum and a rosarium, and some earlier features from the former grounds were retained. It was enlarged in 1843, again landscaped by Loddiges, and continued to develop until the 1870s. Many important Non-conformists have been buried here. Now run by Abney Park Trust, it is managed as a nature reserve.
A strong Quaker community grew up in Stoke Newington from the late C17th. In 1827 it was decided to build the Friends Meeting House in Park Street, now called Yoakley Road, and it opened in 1828. The Quaker Burial Ground was established in 1827, was enlarged in 1849 and continued to be in use until 1957. Most of the site was sold to the local Council in 1955 and the Meeting House was replaced by a smaller building, but closed as a Quaker Meeting House in 1966. The north part of the former burial ground was converted into a small public garden, the tombstones stacked against the boundary walls around a central lawn in which are planted five Irish yews.
Stamford Hill Strips are four roadside grassed areas, with a few trees, which were handed over free of cost to the Metropolitan Board of Works in 1883 as public open space. Later owned and maintained by Hackney Borough Council, they are protected under the London Squares Preservation Act of 1931.