Chiswick Timeline of Writers & Books: A quick guide
From the Writers Trail:
30. Sir John Betjeman* 1906-1984. Poet Laureate (1972-1984), heritage campaigner. The dogs do bark in Bedford Park. Patron of the Bedford Park Society from 1963 and Bedford Park Festival from 1967, helping save first garden suburb from developers.St Michael & All Angels Church, Bedford Park, W4 1TT Read more at: ‘Writers Tales’
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1. In defence of the suburbs by Brian Appleyard: New Statesman
But the suburb itself found salvation in one place – Chiswick. There, just north of Turnham Green Station, in 1875, a developer named Jonathan Carr bought 24 acres of land on which he established Bedford Park. John Betjeman described this in 1960 as “the most significant suburb built in the last century, probably the most significant in the western world”.
2. 50 years of the Bedford Park Festival
3. John Betjeman and the Battle of Bedford Park.
“We sat around John Betjeman, on the lawn, in an adoring circle,” recalled Eleanor Greeves, wife of Tom Affleck Greeves, (architect and future co-founder of the Bedford Park Society), after having tea in May 1952 at Betjeman’s house, The Mead in Wantage, brought together by a mutual friend Peter Clarke.
Read the full story: Betjeman and the Battle of Bedford Park (picture above):
The Chiswick Calendar, blog by Kate Bowes of the Bedford Park Society
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4. John Betjeman, the Bedford Park Society and the Bedford Park Festival
John Betjeman, the poet, journalist and heritage campaigner, was the first patron of The Bedford Park Society in Chiswick and also of the annual Bedford Park Festival. Though he did not live in Chiswick, he probably did more for its prosperity than many of those who did. In 1960, in the Daily Telegraph, he wrote that Bedford Park was “the most significant suburb built in the last century, probably the most significant in the Western world”. He called its parish church, St Michael & All Angels, “a very lovely church and a fine example of Norman Shaw’s work”.
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The Bedford Park Society was formed in 1963 by two local residents, Harry Taylor, a community activist, and Tom Greeves, a conservationist and architect, who were horrified by the rash of demolition and inappropriate development in the world’s first garden suburb (Acton Gazette, February 1963, above).
The breakthrough came in 1967 with an exhibition staged as part of the first Bedford Park Festival, highlighting the history of Bedford Park and the dangers it faced. Read: The Exhibition that Saved Bedford Park on the Bedford Park Society website. One visitor was a Ministry of Housing & Local Government inspector, who was so impressed that within a month he recommended the Grade II listing of 356 buildings, including the former Stores (now offices), the Tabard Inn, the Club (now the London Buddhist Vihara), the Church of St Michael and All Angels and its Parish Hall. A few years later both Ealing and Hounslow councils designated Bedford Park a conservation area.
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The full story is told in John Betjeman: The Biography by Bevis Hillier and was celebrated on the 50th anniversary of ‘the Saving of Bedford Park’, during the Festival’s Golden Jubilee.
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AN Wilson: Financial Times, Diary, June 2014:
It is 30 years since the death of John Betjeman, and the BBC has asked me to do a documentary film as a tribute. Each time that I return to Betjeman, I wonder whether disillusionment will set in. Will it emerge that I think his campaigns to save our architectural heritage were somehow a bit quaint or precious? No, I do not find that. I had a walk round Bedford Park in west London – which would have been demolished had he not put his weight behind the plan to save it…These visits only redoubled my admiration for Betjeman the conservationist.
Chiswick Timeline Writers Trail
Read more stories via the Writers Tales page.
The Chiswick Timeline of Writers & Books lists almost 500 writers who have written a book and lived in Chiswick W4, or written books about the area. See A Quick Guide.