If you've ever ventured down to the south side of the Thames just east of Tower Bridge, past the Design Museum, you can't have failed to notice a cluster of long boats and barges, sprouting intriguingly incongruous greenery, moored there. This is Garden Barge Square, and for years it has held a casual fascination for me as one of those private-but-in-plain-site parts of London, there for all to see but non-the-less inaccessible. Last month, as part of the
National Gardens Scheme charity open day, the veil was lifted, so I went along to have a nose around.
I'm sure that it would make a wonderful setting for a scene or two in one of the London Novels which I'll probably never get round to writing. In the meantime, the sensation of standing among a traditional English cottage garden, with borders full of rose bushes, while being buffeted by the swell of a passing tourist boat, will stay with me for some time. I don't think I've ever felt seasick in a garden before.
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