Vauxhall Park & the Model Village

Vauxhall Park in London features a miniature Tudor model village crafted from cement by 77-year-old Edgar Wilson in 1943. Opened in 1890 on the former home site of suffragist Millicent Garrett Fawcett and blind MP Henry Fawcett, the park was designed by Fanny Wilkinson, Britain's first professional female landscape gardener. The miniature houses were relocated from Brockwell Park during the 1950s and restored by local resident Nobby Clark in 2001.

London Β· from the walk β€œSecrets of Vauxhall: Spies, Pleasure & Hidden London” Β· audio ~3 min Β· Generated

Vauxhall Park, Fentiman Road, London SW8 1LA

Who created the miniature Tudor village in London's Vauxhall Park?

Look around you. This quiet little corner of Vaux-hall Park holds one of London's most delightful secrets... a tiny Tudor village, with miniature houses no taller than your knee, nestled among the flower beds. Most Londoners have never even heard of it. But the story of how these little homes got here... and the story of this park itself... is extraordinary.......... Let's start with the park. On the seventh of July, eighteen ninety, the Prince of Wales... later King Edward the Seventh... arrived here with Princess Louise, the Duke of Edinburgh, and even the Archbishop of Canterbury to formally open this green space. But this wasn't some royal whim. This park exists because of a Remarkable couple who once lived right where you're standing.......... Henry Faw-cett was Britain's first completely blind Member of Parliament. At just twenty five, he was out shooting with his father when a terrible accident occurred... his own father misfired at a flock of partridges and the shot struck Henry in Both eyes. He never saw again. But when told he was permanently blinded, he reportedly said... "Well, it shan't make any difference in my plans of life." And it didn't. He became a Cambridge professor, then an MP, and eventually Postmaster General... the man who gave Britain parcel post, postal orders, and the sixpenny telegram.......... Henry and his wife, Millicent Garrett Faw-cett... the great suffragist... lived right here, at number fifty one South Lam-beth Road. After Henry's death in eighteen eighty four, Millicent campaigned alongside Octavia Hill, co-founder of the National Trust, to save this land from developers. And the woman they hired to design the park? Fanny Wil-kinson... Britain's First professional female landscape gardener, who had to convince the Crystal Palace School of Gardening to accept her as their first female student. She went on to design over seventy five public gardens across London!......... Now, the model village. These charming little houses were handcrafted from cement in nineteen forty three by a retired engineer named Edgar Wil-son, who was Seventy Seven years old at the time. He originally made them for Brock-well Park, but in the nineteen fifties, Lam-beth Council decided Brockwell had too many tiny houses... so they moved half of them here. And here's the twist... Edgar was so touched by food parcels sent from Melbourne, Australia during the war that he built a Third Tudor village, crated it up, and shipped it by navy vessel all the way to Australia. That village still stands today in Melbourne's Fitz-Roy Gardens. A local man named Nobby Clark restored these little houses in two thousand one, and his secret to keeping them safe from vandals? He fills each one with sand and cement!......... Take a moment to crouch down and peer into these tiny windows. Each house is signed and dated on the inside by Edgar himself.

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