These gardens around the Imperial War Museum are the only open ground remnant of the marshy common land known as Saint George's fields which spread north and south of what was then Lambeth Road and is now St George's Road. The name of the fields derived from their association with the church of Saint George the Martyr in Borough High Street, Southwark which has been entirely replaced by an 18th century building. About here was the Dog and Duck public house which was replaced, after the magistrates closed it down in 1799, by the Bedlam Mental Asylum wheich was moved across the river to here from London Wall on the north of the city. Supposedly the name of the Dog and Duck derived from the practice of duck-hunting that was a local pastime which gives an indication of the terrain hereabouts. The name of the park was given by the newspaper tycoon Lord Rothermere. It is that of his mother.

O/S Co-ords:3150.7912
Source(s):

Westminster Palace and Parliament