Guest post by local historian Philip Grant
I wrote about the work of the landscape gardener Humphry Repton in Part 1 of The Wembley Park Story, as part of “local history in lockdown” in May 2020. He turned farmland at Wembley owned by Richard Page, into a landscaped country estate around a house previously called “Wellers”, in 1793. Repton had firm views on what such estates should be called:
‘There is at present no word by which we express that sort of territory adjacent to a country mansion, which being too large for a garden, too wild for pleasure ground, and too neat for a farm, is yet often denied the name of a park, because it is not fed by deer. I generally waive this distinction, and call the wood and lawns, near every house, a park, whether fed by deer, by sheep, or heavy cattle.’
That’s how Wembley Park got its name, and it was, as Repton said in a letter to a friend in May 1793, ‘a most beautiful spot near Harrow’.
Extract from a letter written by Humphry Repton on 6 May 1793. (From a copy at Brent Archives)
I don’t know how many times, if ever, Humphry Repton came back to Wembley Park after that, before his death in 1818. But a celebration of his career in 2018 by The Gardens Trust has led to his return this week.
As part of their “Sharing Repton” events, a bust of the famous landscape designer, by the sculptor Hannah Northam, was donated to the Trust by Haddonstone. It was decided to award this as a prize in a competition open to places across the country where Repton had worked – and the winner was … Wembley Park!
Last Wednesday afternoon, I was one of a small crowd standing at the corner of Elvin Gardens, beside Humphry Repton Lane. Some of the builders working nearby were giving us puzzled looks, but seemed even more puzzled by a cloaked figure, wearing a Quintain hard hat.
The mystery figure was revealed when we were joined by the (even more beautifully robed) Deputy Mayor of Brent, Cllr. Orleen Hylton, who unveiled the bust of Humphry Repton.
As an aside, the pendant on the Deputy Mayor’s chain of office bears the date “1937”, another piece of local history. It was part of the Civic Regalia donated by the local benefactor Titus Barham, the Chairman of the Express Dairies company, when Wembley was made a borough in that year. He was chosen to be Wembley’s first Mayor, but he died just before the borough received its Charter. He left his home in Sudbury, and its beautiful grounds, for the enjoyment of the people of Wembley, and they were opened as Barham Park in January 1938.
In her short speech at the unveiling, The Garden Trust’s Head of
Operations, Linden Groves, noted that all of Repton’s designs for this part of
the Wembley Park estate had now gone, to be replaced by Quintain’s ongoing development.
However, she was impressed by the modern landscaping of areas like Elvin
Gardens. She emphasised how important green spaces were for the wellbeing of
residents, as had been clearly shown during the Covid-19 lockdowns.
I hope that Cllr. Hylton will take that message back to her fellow councillors, as well as telling them about Humphry Repton, and the bust of him in the gardens just behind the Civic Centre.
The location of the Humphry Repton bust – see lime green arrow. (Image from Google Maps)
The site across Humphry Repton Lane from the bust has been built on since the aerial image above, and the block of apartments nearing completion is called Repton Gardens. Quintain originally planned to move the bust to Union Park, when work on that is completed, but its present location seems far more appropriate. I hope you will take the opportunity to go and see “Humphry” when you are in the area!
If you would like to find out more about Humphry Repton and his work, the London Parks & Gardens Trust has recently published “Repton in London – The Gardens and Landscapes of Humphry Repton (1752-1818) in the London Boroughs”. I will be recommending that Brent Libraries gets at least one copy that can be borrowed, but if you would like your own copy, go to: https://www.londongardenstrust.org/publications/repton.php
Philip Grant.
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