Holland Garden

Holland Garden was created as a public garden in 1929 after Lady Holland donated the site to Wimbledon Council in 1928 as a memorial to her late husband.

Sir Arthur and Lady Holland lived at Holmhurst, a large house off Copse Hill in Wimbledon. In 1893 The Study Prep School was founded at Holmhurst, where in the study the Hollands' governess, Miss Sidford, taught 3 of  their 6 children. In 1895 Miss Sidford joined forces with Miss Farman, Governess at The Old House, Church Road; they combined their small classes and rented a room above the Lecture Hall in Lingfield Road, staying here until 1897 when they moved to 47 The High Street. As the school's numbers grew, larger premises were needed and in 1903 a purpose-built school designed by Miss Sidford's brother Alfred was built. Miss Sidford remained headmistress until 1936. Holmhurst is now demolished; its site was formerly at the top of the hill near Westside Tennis Club, and the grounds, which included a large plot on the corner of Pepys Road and Cottenham Park Road, included an orchard, kitchen garden and paddock. After the death of Sir Arthur in 1928, the land was donated by Lady Holland and her family for a public garden named in his memory. Sir Arthur was a leading Liberal and town councillor, and had founded Wimbledon and Mitcham Library in 1888; he was President of Wimbledon Football Club, and from 1893 became a JP. One of Wimbledon's first Mayors, he was also founder of the Wimbledon Guild, a charity that The Study Prep still supports. Lady Holland (1842-1940) was herself greatly concerned with local education and welfare. When she died, Holmhurst was given to 'the old people of Wimbledon'.

Holland Garden was provided with hard tennis courts and a thatched summer house, but the latter caught fire in the 1950s. The small public garden is on a sloping site with an entrance at the top through an iron gateway that has a plaque relating to the donation of the land. From here a tarmac path leads to an area of formal gardens with a mature oak in the centre and shaped beds set into lawn. The garden has seating, shrubberies and numerous tree species, with rose beds surrounding the tennis courts; at the lowest point is a hedged playing field, adjacent to which is a small pavilion. A project carried out in partnership with the Friends of Holland Garden saw the installation of new ornate railings to replace the old wooden fence along the Cambridge Road boundary, and by 2012 the old fencing along Pepys Road had also been replaced with railings.

The Friends of Holland Garden was formed by local residents in 2003 in order to maintain and promote the garden and its amenities for the benefit of the local community. The Friends work with LB Merton's contractor idverde to maintain the garden and undertake gardening projects, which in recent years have included planting a camellia bed by the Cambridge Road entrance in 2020; clearing ivy, planting trees and putting up a bug hotel and bird boxes in 2022; and a bench and willow archway constructed by volunteers at the top of the garden. As part of their 'Thousand Tree Challenge', local estate agents Robert Holmes donated 6 trees to Holland Garden, which were planted by gardening volunteers during winter 2023/24. The Friends had previously planted memorial trees for HM Queen Elizabeth II and HRH Prince Philip, as well as several trees donated by local residents, as a result of which Holland Garden received recognition in the Queen's Green Canopy initiative. 

There are currently two tennis courts, a boules pitch and table tennis in the garden. The tennis courts were renovated in autumn 2023, jointly funded by Merton Council and the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA), and since June 2024 have been managed by Merton Council rather than the Friends. Since 2024, in order to assist with the perennial problem of waterlogging by the entrance at Cambridge Road, Merton's contractors dug four new beds covered with stones and plants as soak-aways; the path by Orchard Lane has been resurfaced, and a new fence built thanks to Charterfield Homes, which is developing new houses and flats overlooking Holland Garden. Charterfield Homes also donated over 70 perenials to enhance the garden's flower beds.

Along with a small number of other parks and gardens in the borough, the Friends has an arrangement with Merton to assist in opening Holland Garden in the spring and summer months, operating a rota whereby participants take responsibility for unlocking the three gates to the garden each morning. In return idverde unlocks the garden from October to March and also locks the garden each evening throughout the year.