Description
Gwendwr Gardens is on land that was once the site of the Cedars Lawn Tennis Club. The land was donated to Fulham Borough Council by R G Gunter and opened in 1949 as a memorial garden. The name of the road and park comes from an estate owned by the Gunter family in Wales. The garden has flagged stone paths, a sunken garden with pool, rose beds, shrub borders, lawn at the west with specimen trees and a low stone wall and hedge boundary.
Practical Information
| Site location | Gwendwr Road |
|---|---|
| Postcode | W14 |
| What3Words | ///faces.unable.round |
| Type of Site | Public Gardens |
| Borough | Hammersmith & Fulham |
| Open to Public | Yes |
| Opening Times | 7.30am - dusk |
| Public Transport | Tube: Barons Court (District, Piccadilly). Bus: 28, 391 |
| Research Updated | 1 September 2011 |
| Last Updated | 18 October 2026 |
Full description
The land was owned by the Gunter family and was offered by Robert Geoffrey Gunter to Fulham Borough Council to be laid out as a memorial garden for the benefit of local people in memory of war damage in the West Kensington especially that of the night of 20 February 1944. Mr Gunter also contributed to the cost of laying out the garden and it opened on 23 July 1949. A statue by Hermon Cawthra, 'Meditation', which was exhibited in the Royal Academy of 1957, was installed in the garden but has subsequently been stolen. Another work by the same artist is found in Pryor's Bank Gardens (q.v.). Cawthra had a studio at Elysium Place in 1932-41 and at No. 4 Fulham Park Gardens from 1946-64. On the south side of Gwendwr Road is a small grassed area and there are some areas of planting and grass along Talgarth Road.
Further Information
| Grid Reference | TQ244784 |
|---|---|
| Size in hectares | 0.47 |
| Site Ownership | LB Hammersmith & Fulham |
| Site Management | Environment Department, Parks Service (ground maintenance by Quadron Services) |
| Dates | 1949 |
| 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 | Yes |
| Local Authority | Hammersmith & Fulham |
| In Conservation Area | Yes |
| Conservation Area Name | Gunter |
| Tree Preservation Order | No |
| Nature Conservation Area | No |
| Green Belt | No |
| Metropolitan Open Land | No |
| Special Policy Area | No |
| Other LA Designation | Small Local Park; Open Space of Borough-wide Importance |
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
North End House consists of two cruciform mansion blocks built in 1937/8 on the site of the late C18th house from which they take their name. Until development began in the C19th the area was mainly orchards and market gardens, with a number of grand houses built along main roads. One such was North End Villa, later House, which had extensive wooded grounds. The western part of the grounds began to be built over in the late C19th and the house was demolished in 1928 following a fire. Behind the blocks is a modern garden designed around a number of mature trees, for the private use of residents.
Although Samuel Richardson House dates from c.1960 the original building on this site, The Grange, was built in c.1715 and was the home of Samuel Richardson and Sir Edward Burne-Jones in the C18th and C19th respectively. The house and gardens were later used by a company run by the Crowther family to display antique monuments, garden ornaments and statuary. The garden was used for allotments in WWII. Eventually the house was pulled down and Samuel Richardson House was built on the site, as part of the Lytton Estate. Behind the flats are the remnants of the garden, including some old trees.
Barons Keep is situated on the western edge of what was the Gunter Estate, the land purchased piecemeal by James Gunter from 1799 and mainly used as market gardens until it was developed for housing from the latter C19th onwards. Barons Keep was built in 1937, a U-shaped range of apartment blocks designed in ocean-liner style overlooking a private garden. The orientation of the buildings was to provide each apartment with a view over the open land on the other side of Gliddon Road, formerly St Paul's School playing fields, but now occupied by Hammersmith & Fulham West London College. The site is surrounded by a low brick wall with modern wrought-iron fencing and gates and low hedges, and a number of mature trees. At each end of the gardens are two circular beds planted with flowers and grass, linked by a rectangular grassed bed with one tree. The access roads are private and now used for car parking.
