Paddington Street Gardens North and South

The older burial ground was formed when additional burial ground was needed for the old St Marylebone Parish Church and in 1730 one acre and one rood to the south of what is now Paddington Street, which dates from the 1760s, was granted to the parish by Edward Harley, Earl of Oxford. It was consecrated as a burial ground in 1733. One of the conditions of the Earl's grant was that a workhouse should be provided for the poor of the parish, and this was erected in 1750-52. After 1775 it was used as the parish infirmary until 1791, a larger workhouse having been built to the north, on the present site of the University of Westminster. By 1771 further space for graves was needed and the parish bought the piece of land on the north side of the street from Henry Portman, which was consecrated in 1772. It was in this area to the north that the new workhouse was built, with a larger infirmary built adjacent in 1792.

The burial ground was closed in 1814 when St John's Wood Burial Ground opened (see St John's Wood Church Grounds q.v.), although the land remains consecrated. It was made into a public recreation ground in 1885, which was opened on 6 July 1886 by Princess Louise. The garden was designed by Fanny Wilkinson, landscape gardener of the MPGA, for whom she laid out over 75 public gardens in London, many of them disused burial grounds. The north area has lime and London plane trees around the roughly rectangular lawn with a simple straight walk around it, as shown on the 1914 OS map. The larger area south of Paddington Street has a fine mausoleum in the form of a square building with an ogee dome, which was erected by Richard Fitzpatrick in memory of his wife Susanna who died in 1730. His daughter Anne, Baroness de Robeck, was later buried here in 1829. There are two circular shelters in the gardens, the one to the north is early C20th, the other perhaps slightly later, although it corresponds to buildings shown on the 1914 OS. There is a drinking fountain, now surmounted by an astrolabe and modern railings around the northern lawn. The sculpture, 'Street Orderly Boy' by the Milanese artist Donato Barcaglia,1930, was presented and erected here in 1943. The path system is recognisably similar to that shown on the 1914 OS; trees include Cherries, Laburnum, Hawthorn and shrubs, notable London Planes and mature Limes along the western boundary. On the south side of Paddington Green is the St Marylebone Youth Centre Club.