Description
* on The National Heritage List for England, Parks & Gardens
This private town garden was designed for Sir Hugh Lane in 1909 by Sir Edwin Lutyens, the planting plan by Gertrude Jekyll, as part of the refurbishment of his house at No. 100 Cheyne Walk. The house stands on what was once part of the site occupied by the C17th Lindsey House, famous as the residence of the 3rd Earl of Lindsey, Lord Great Chamberlain to Charles II. Reinstatement of the 1909 plan for the rear garden has been undertaken since 1983.
This private town garden was designed for Sir Hugh Lane in 1909 by Sir Edwin Lutyens, the planting plan by Gertrude Jekyll, as part of the refurbishment of his house at No. 100 Cheyne Walk. The house stands on what was once part of the site occupied by the C17th Lindsey House, famous as the residence of the 3rd Earl of Lindsey, Lord Great Chamberlain to Charles II. Reinstatement of the 1909 plan for the rear garden has been undertaken since 1983.
Practical Information
| Previously known as | Lindsey House |
|---|---|
| Site location | 100, Cheyne Walk |
| Postcode | SW10 0DQ |
| What3Words | ///powers.test.silent |
| Type of Site | Private Garden |
| Borough | Kensington & Chelsea |
| Open to Public | Occasionally |
| Opening Times | Opens on one day for London Open House. Otherwise private |
| Public Transport | Tube: Fulham Broadway (District)/ Sloane Square (District, Circle) |
| Research Updated | 1 October 2007 |
| Last Updated | 18 October 2026 |
Full description
Site on The National Heritage List for England, Parks & Gardens, for Register Entry see https://www.historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list. The Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England was established in 1984 and was commonly called English Heritage. In April 2015 it split into 2 separate entities, Historic England (HE), which continues to champion and protect the historic environment, and the English Heritage Trust, whose role is to look after the 400+ historic sites and monuments owned by the state. HE manages the National Heritage List for England (NHLE) that includes over 400,000 items ranging from prehistoric monuments to office blocks, battlefields and parks, which benefit from legal protection.
No. 100 Cheyne Walk is on part of the site once occupied by Lindsey House (now taken up by Nos.96-101 Cheyne Walk). The house was rebuilt in 1674 for the third Earl of Lindsey incorporating fabric of the previous C16th house. It was divided into separate dwellings in c.1775. No. 100 together with No. 99 were modified in the late C19th by George Devey.
The rear walled garden was laid out by Edwin Lutyens and Gertrude Jekyll for Sir Hugh Lane, and runs south-east / north-west, with the house at the south-east end. It consists of a central lengthwise lawn flanked to left and right by paved paths and further strips of lawn on the outer side. The original plan had a paved circular pool at the centre of the lawn, which was planted with box in 1985, at which time two paved areas were made, enclosed by sections of yew hedge. A flower border is along the north-east wall, with twin alcoves in the north-west wall at the end of the two paved paths. The path on the south-west side of the garden has a colonnade at the house end with steps down to a second terrace that used to be the kitchen beside the house. The north-west wall had a niche (held by the National Trust) like others at the end of the garden. Trees and shrubs include a mulberry in the west centre of the garden and a plane tree at the north-west end. The flower border was replanted in 1985 in keeping with Jekyll's planting as part of the reinstatement of the garden in the 1980s undertaken by the then owner John Stefanidis with the assistance of garden designer Arabella Lennox-Boyd. The work is described in her book, 'Private Gardens of London' (1990).
No. 100 Cheyne Walk is on part of the site once occupied by Lindsey House (now taken up by Nos.96-101 Cheyne Walk). The house was rebuilt in 1674 for the third Earl of Lindsey incorporating fabric of the previous C16th house. It was divided into separate dwellings in c.1775. No. 100 together with No. 99 were modified in the late C19th by George Devey.
The rear walled garden was laid out by Edwin Lutyens and Gertrude Jekyll for Sir Hugh Lane, and runs south-east / north-west, with the house at the south-east end. It consists of a central lengthwise lawn flanked to left and right by paved paths and further strips of lawn on the outer side. The original plan had a paved circular pool at the centre of the lawn, which was planted with box in 1985, at which time two paved areas were made, enclosed by sections of yew hedge. A flower border is along the north-east wall, with twin alcoves in the north-west wall at the end of the two paved paths. The path on the south-west side of the garden has a colonnade at the house end with steps down to a second terrace that used to be the kitchen beside the house. The north-west wall had a niche (held by the National Trust) like others at the end of the garden. Trees and shrubs include a mulberry in the west centre of the garden and a plane tree at the north-west end. The flower border was replanted in 1985 in keeping with Jekyll's planting as part of the reinstatement of the garden in the 1980s undertaken by the then owner John Stefanidis with the assistance of garden designer Arabella Lennox-Boyd. The work is described in her book, 'Private Gardens of London' (1990).
Further Information
| Grid Reference | TQ268774 |
|---|---|
| Size in hectares | 0.25 |
| Site Ownership | National Trust, leased to private tenant |
| Site Management | private |
| Dates | 1909 |
| Designers | Lutyens and Jeykyll (back garden) |
| Listed Structures | LBII*: 96-101 Cheyne Walk |
| On National Heritage List for England (NHLE), Parks & Gardens | Yes |
| NHLE grade | Grade II |
| Registered common or village green on Commons Registration Act 1965 | No |
| Protected under London Squares Preservation Act 1931 | No |
| Local Authority | Kensington & Chelsea |
| In Conservation Area | Yes |
| Conservation Area Name | Cheyne |
| Tree Preservation Order | Not known |
| Nature Conservation Area | No |
| Green Belt | No |
| Metropolitan Open Land | No |
| Special Policy Area | No |
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
Battersea Bridge Gardens is a small riverside garden at the foot of Battersea Bridge created when the Thames was embanked to designs of Sir Joseph Bazalgette from 1869 The Embankment was completed as far as Battersea Bridge by 1874. Despite an Enabling Bill introduced by the LCC in 1896, due to local objections, the riverside west of the bridge was not embanked at that time. The garden has raised beds, seating, curved path, areas of grass and a number of trees including a mulberry tree. In 2005 a statue of James McNeill Whistler by Nicholas Dimbleby was erected in the garden, commissioned by the Chelsea Arts Club.
Burial ground for the Moravian Church established here by Count Zinzendorf, Bishop of the Moravians. In 1750 Zinzendorf had purchased Lindsey House and the grounds of Beaufort House, both once part of Sir Thomas More's Chelsea estate. The burial ground, on the stable yard of Beaufort House and having remnants of Tudor brick walls, was exempted from closure after the Burial Act of 1855 and around 400 people have been interred since 1751.
Allen Hall Seminary Garden is one of the largest private gardens in Chelsea, its history dating back to 1524 when Sir Thomas More purchased land in Chelsea and Kensington for his Great House. Although his house is long gone, one of the mulberry trees he planted survives in the Seminary Garden. His gardens had a rich variety of flowering shrubs, herbs and trees, an orchard and kitchen gardens. The current building is a former C19th convent and since 1975 has been the Seminary of the RC Archdiocese of Westminster. A central courtyard garden has a fountain and shrubs and the main garden has lawn surrounded by roses, evergreen and flowering shrubs and trees; a path leads to a secluded walled garden beyond which is More's mulberry tree, and finally an area planted in c.2004 as the St Thomas More Mulberry Walk.