Open Garden Squares Weekend - Saturday and Sunday, June 11 & 12, 2011

TICKETS are now on sale for the annual and extremely popular Open Garden Squares Weekend that takes place on Saturday and Sunday, June 11 & 12, 2011. Over 210 gardens are participating in the weekend with 31 taking part for the first time and 117 private gardens opening exclusively for the event.

One ticket allows entry to all venues over the entire weekend. Tickets bought in advance cost just £7.50 and £10 during the weekend. These can be bought from the ticket hotline on 020 8347 3230 (Mon to Fri 9am to 6pm) or through www.capitalgardens.co.uk - both provided by Capital Gardens, as well as the Britain and London Visitor Centre on Lower Regent Street.

Following on from the Royal Wedding, we are delighted that The Goring Hotel – where Kate Middleton (now Duchess of Cambridge) stayed the night before the wedding is taking part, as are the gardens at Westminster Abbey.

Also with Royal Connections is Apartment 1A at Kensington Palace, which was the home of Princess Margaret for many years and will be taking part for the second year. Open Garden Squares Weekend have been given exclusive access on the morning of Saturday 11th only for guided tours, with tickets allocated in advance. The garden, with a stone terrace which she described as ‘my eighteen feet of Mustique’ was given to Princess Margaret soon after her marriage in 1960, and was shortly thereafter enclosed on the south and east sides by brick walls. The half-acre ground, which was laid out from the early 1970s by the Princess - sometimes in collaboration with Roddy Llewellyn, and maintained by Capital Gardens, possesses a number of trees and shrubs planted by Princess Margaret (including a cluster of camellias), a white-painted wrought-iron screen made from components of a former grandstand from Ascot racecourse, a trellis screen, and a wall fountain. The garden still retains its informal character. Tour numbers will be strictly limited; please visit www.opensquares.org for details on how to apply for tickets. The tours will be given by Todd Longstaffe-Gowan and James Fox who are involved in the £12 million project to transform the (public) palace gardens and the visitor experience at Kensington Palace for HM The Queen's Diamond Jubilee in 2012.

Among the gardens open to the public will be the gardens of three of London’s prisons, HM Prison Holloway; HM Prison Wormwood Scrubs and HM Prison Wandsworth. These can be visited during the weekend but need to be booked by June 7 after purchasing a ticket for the weekend. Details of how to book a place on a tour are included in the guidebook which comes with a ticket.

For the first time, Gardening Leave - which opened in April at the Royal Hospital Chelsea will be taking part as well as more than 20 Capital Growth gardens - including one in a Skip near Kings Cross and one on the roof of a Supermarket (Food from the Sky) in Crouch End.

Also open especially for Open Garden Squares Weekend will be many of the much loved and popular gardens such as the Kensington Roof Gardens; Middle and Inner Temple; Park Square and Park Crescent; Branch Hill Allotments; Fulham Palace Meadows Allotments; Culpeper Community Garden; St Mary’s Secret Garden; The Community Garden at the Tate Modern; Bonnington Square; Eaton Square; Edwardes Square; Arundel and Elgin in Notting Hill and St Michael’s Convent.

TICKET DETAILS

One ticket allows entry to all venues over the entire weekend. Ticket prices will be £7.50 in advance and £10 if bought during the weekend.

These will be available from May 5, 2011.

From the Ticket hotline on 020 8347 3230 (Mon - Fri 9.00am - 6.00pm)

Online from www.capitalgardens.co.uk

By post send a stamped addressed envelope to Capital Gardens, 1 Townsend Yard, Highgate Village, London, N6 5JF. Cheques should be made payable to Capital Gardens Ltd. For each ticket booked in advance, Capital Gardens will give a £5 discount voucher to spend at any Capital Gardens garden centre. The closing date for advance bookings is Monday, 6 June 2011.

In person from the Britain and London Visitor Centre on Lower Regent Street, SW1Y 4XT and from all Capital Garden Centres.

During the weekend tickets are available from the Britain and London Visitor Centre and selected participating gardens.

Lots more information can be found at www.opensquares.org

Follow us on Twitter @OGSW2011 and on Facebook.

Notes -

- Open Garden Squares Weekend is run by the London Parks & Gardens Trust to raise awareness of the significant social, cultural, environmental and economic contribution that squares make to the capital and its inhabitants. The Trust provides a centre for education, research, and creative projects for the improvement and conservation of London’s green urban spaces.

www.londongardenstrust.org

- If you are interested in helping as a volunteer during the weekend – please visit the website for more details. In return for volunteering, you will be given a free ticket to the weekend.

For further media information and images please contact Rachel Aked at rachel@rachelaked.co.uk or +44 (0)7790 732448

May 2011

MEDIA PARTNER FOR 2011