Walsall Memorial Garden

Heritage listing

Details A public garden, opened in 1952, designed by Geoffrey Jellicoe as a memorial to the dead of the two World Wars and said to mark a significant stage in the evolution of his principles of design. HISTORIC DEVELOPMENT The area south of St Matthew's church (until the late C18 All Saints) was at the heart of the medieval town of Walsall, and by the C18 was heavily built-up. By the C19, however, the commercial centre of the town had moved west to the area around The Bridge and Park Street and many of the properties on Church Hill had become dilapidated. There was some demolition south of the church in the middle of that century, and further slum clearance in the 1930s when the area's inhabitants were moved to new council houses. Church Hill was left largely open, and after the Second World War was declared an 'Area of Special Development' with a high priority for reconstruction. In 1947 Geoffrey Jellicoe (kt 1979) was awarded a contract to design an ambitious scheme whereby the hilltop would be left open as a garden, to include a memorial to the town's war dead, which would be linked to the town by bridges. Jellicoe's final scheme was slightly less ambitious. The initial phase of the project included the construction of the greater part of the Memorial Garden and the Terrace, opened in 1952. The second phase, comprising the building of the memorial chapel in the Memorial Garden, and the flats and Brotherhood or Church Hall to the south of the open space known as St Matthew's Close, was completed c 1960. The buildings were intended to preserve, to some extent, the church's urban setting. The Memorial Garden and Terrace were restored c 1994 when some changes were made to the materials used for paths and surfacing. In 1998 the gardener's house was under restoration. DESC

From the Historic England List Entry under OGL v3.