Lewisham Memorial Gardens

Lewisham War Memorial Gardens is an area of formal landscaping either side of the War Memorial that was unveiled and dedicated in May 1921 and now commemorates Lewisham's dead of both world wars. The site for the War Memorial was donated by the Earl of Dartmouth and the Lewisham Park Trustees, within a linear strip of green space that fronted Lewisham High Street. The Lewisham Park development was laid out from the 1840s on the estate lands of Lord Dartmouth on the former South Field of the medieval Manor of Lewisham. Designed to attract wealthy residents, the semi-detached and detached villas surrounded a central private parkland provided solely for the residents' use, which became a public park in 1965, Lewisham Park (q.v.). 

The foundation stone was laid on 6 November 1920 by the Mayor of Lewisham, Harry Chiesman JP MBE, and the memorial was unveiled on 7 May 1921, a stone obelisk designed by architect Edward  Albert  Stone. It commemorated some 1500 of the 1/4th London Brigade RFA and 20th Battalion London Regiment whose headquarters were situated in the Borough. Two stone piers on either side of the monument have the inscription that they 'were erected in memory of officers and men of the 11th Lewisham Battalion of the Royal West Kent Regiment who fell in the Great War'. The memorial was set within a circular paved area and had a path leading to Lewisham High Street. with two smaller obelisks either side of the entrance, later topped by a bronze lamp base that was not part of the original design. A plaque was added to the war memorial for WWII and unveiled on 11 November 1949 by Councillor G R D Bradfield.

C19th OS maps show the site of the Memorial Garden as a well-planted lozenge of land fronting onto the main road with a roadway dividing it from front gardens of paired villas on Lewisham Park. By the First Edition OS Map, three substantial properties are marked, including Richmond Villa and Vanda House, with the area to the south of the latter shown as a field. The Memorial was originally in the centre of the linear lozenge of planting without any formal layout, as shown in the OS Map (TQ3774-A ) published in 1951. At that time the paired villas behind the garden are still in place, but  in 1965 they have been replaced by three substantial blocks named Malling, Bredgar and Kemsley after villages in north Kent, now known as Lewisham Park Towers. The formal layout of the Memorial Gardens dates from c.1965. The War Memorial is hedged by yew and the symmetrically laid-out garden that extends either side has concrete crazy paved paths and yew hedges surrounding formal beds with seat niches, some now empty of seats. There are bedding displays and raised planted areas, ornamental evergreens and shrubs. At the south end, near a raised planted shield, is an Indian cedar tree planted on 28 March 1985 by the Mayor of Lewisham to celebrate the 40th anniversary of end of WWII and the formation of United Nations. Along the boundary at Lewisham High Street are London plane trees behind a low wall. 

Adjacent to the War Memorial is the Victoria Cross Memorial, which was erected in May 2015, dedicated to VC recipients with connections to Lewisham. The Victoria Cross was created by Queen Victoria in 1856 and is the most prestigious award for members of the British Armed Services, for 'valour in the presence of the enemy'.  The monument is a tapered polished stone plinth below a representation of the VC medal in stone, and bears the following inscription in gold: 'In honour of the citizens of Lewisham awarded the Victoria Cross for valour. This memorial was erected 2015 in gratitude by Lewisham veterans in honour of their brave comrades'. At the same time as the unveiling of the VC Memorial, a VC plaque set in the paving near the Memorial was unveiled in commemoration of Private John Lynn, who had died of gas poisoning at Ypres in 1915. Additional plaques have since been laid into the ground in front of the War Memorial commemorating other recipients of the VC with connections to Lewisham: Brigadier General Clifford Coffin, Major Francis Harvey RM, Lt Alan Jerrard, Lt Richard Jones and Captain Walter Stone.

Lewisham Park Conservation Area was adopted on 26 June 2019, its boundary encompassing the public park, the large Victorian and Edwardian houses on its southern and eastern edges, together with the Memorial Gardens. Much of the research that informed the Conservation Area appraisal, including Residents Association records dating back to 1878, was provided by the Lewisham Park Residents' Association, which was established in 2012.