Friends of Greenwich Park Annual Lecture
This Other Eden: The English Obsession with Gardens
Andrea Wulf
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
Young garden historian Andrea Wulf is to give the Friends of Greenwich Park Annual Lecture on Wednesday, January 31 at the University of Greenwich on This Other Eden: the English Obsession with Gardens.
Author of the highly acclaimed This Other Eden, she will talk about the English fascination with plants and garden design and how they have reflected power, fashion and politics over 300 years.
Andrea Wulf’s illustrated talk starts with Hatfield House in the early 1600s when French engineer and designer Salomon de Caus created moving statues and incredible water works for Robert Cecil, then the most powerful man behind the English throne. De Caus also worked at Somerset House and at Greenwich for James I’s wife, Anne of Denmark.
By 1688, William of Orange, influenced by Isaac Newton’s mathematical ideas, commissioned Christopher Wren to design the formal gardens at Hampton Court. Then 30 years later idealised nature was let in and bucolic tranquillity became the fashion until the industrial revolution and Joseph Paxton’s iron-framed greenhouses at Chatsworth allowed skilled gardeners to grow orchids, palms and pineapples in England’s cool and damp climate.
Andrea trained as a design historian at the Royal College of Art, London, and the University of Luneburg, Germany. She is an accomplished art photographer and journalist, writing for Architects’ Journal, Sunday Times, The Guardian, The Observer and Times Literary Supplement. Andrea’s interest in garden history has taken her into planning appeals related to historic houses and gardens, authorship and speaking engagements.
Andrea hit the headlines last summer with an acclaimed series of talks on BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour, taking listeners on a guided tour of the great gardens and explaining their political and social impact.
The talk will be held in King William Court, University of Greenwich, 7.30 for 8pm. Tickets are £10 from Friends of Greenwich Park, 3 Orchard Drive SE3 0QP Tel: 020 8852 8831. Andrea Wulf will be signing copies of This Other Eden at the end of her talk.
ENDS
Notes to editors:
- Greenwich Park: Enclosed in 1433, Greenwich Park is the oldest of the Royal Parks. It is part of an ancient landscape containing many layers of history as well as providing 73ha (183 acres) of open space for activities, wildlife, entertainment and quiet enjoyment. www.royalparks.org.uk
- Friends of Greenwich Park was set up in 1992 to support Park management, encourage an informed interest in Greenwich Park, the oldest of the Royal Parks, and to raise funds for special projects. It has a membership of nearly 1800, including 30 corporate Friends. www.friendsofgreenwichpark.org.uk
- Andrea Wulf’s This Other Eden, is published by Little, Brown, London, priced at £20. www.littlebrown.co.uk
- For more information contact:
- Kathryn Jones, Public Relations, University of Greenwich, 020 8331 9420, k.a.jones@gre.ac.uk
- Elaine Warrell, Friends of Greenwich Park, 020 8852 6158, warrell@dircon.co.uk