Richmond Terrace Garden

* on The National Heritage List for England, Parks & Gardens

Parliament Square was first laid out as a public ceremonial square in 1868 designed by Edward Middleton Barry, son of Sir Charles Barry. The intention was to provide a suitable approach to Sir Charles's newly rebuilt Palace of Westminster, now commonly known as the Houses of Parliament. The square was later redesigned by George Grey Wornum in preparation for the Festival of Britain Year in 1951. His scheme incorporated existing London plane trees on the west side and the four existing statues of politicians and created a terrace garden with flower beds and large stone jardinières. The remainder was laid to grass, except for a paved walk with flower beds and a raised terrace on the north side. The square has undergone relatively few modifications since 1950, but new statues have been added. The square is overlooked by a number of important buildings including the Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey and St Margaret's Chapel.

Downing Street was built in 1682-3 by Sir George Downing in an area that soon came to be dominated by government buildings. Of the original layout as a cul-de-sac Nos.10 and 11 Downing Street remain on the north side, albeit much altered and now interconnected, the remainder to the south largely replaced by the Foreign Office. No.10 was converted in 1732-35 for Sir Robert Walpole, Chancellor of the Exchequer, and since 1735 has been the official London residence and office of over 30 British Prime Ministers, as First Lord of the Treasury. The first mention of the garden of No.10 occurs in 1736, when it was described as adjacent to the residence of Sir Robert Walpole. Used to entertain official visitors, while details of No.10's garden have changed with its occupants and events of war and peace, the shape of the garden plot, confirmed by plans, maps, paintings, drawings and photographs, has remained substantially the same.

Abingdon Street Gardens, also known as College Green, was laid out in the 1960s when C18th houses along Abingdon Street were demolished after WWII. The land was once part of the Old Palace Yard of the Palace of Westminster. A strip of lawn bisected by a path, the Green contains Henry Moore's sculpture 'Knife Edge Two Piece' (1967). To the north is the C14th Jewel Tower with a fragment of moat and medieval quay, beyond which is another remnant of Old Palace Yard, laid out as a simple lawn with 2 mature plane trees and a memorial Portland stone statue of George V by Sir William Reid Dick, set on an imposing base designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott (1947). This area of garden abuts the rear of Westminster Abbey's octagonal C13th Chapter House. It is overlooked from the south by two fine C18th stone-fronted houses in Palace Yard.