2025 marked the 150th Anniversary of Bedford Park. Considered to be the first garden suburb, it was described by the Poet Laureate and heritage campaigner John Betjeman as “the most significant suburb built in the last century, probably the most significant in the western world.” Bedford Park’s buildings and community spirit became an inspiration and model for the creators of later garden suburbs and cities.
The estate’s developer, Jonathan Carr, purchased the first 24 acres of land in 1875, and his vision was realised over the next few years, as the houses, stores, church, a club with a stage, and The Tabard Inn came to fruition. Recognising the benefits of improved transport with the opening of Turnham Green station, Carr planned a new kind of estate in which aesthetically acceptable houses at modest rents would be set in an informal layout that preserved as many mature trees as possible
The Bedford Park Society and St Michael & All Angels Church worked with other local organisations to hold a series of events, including concerts, a party, an exhibition, talks, walks and a special publication to commemorate the anniversary throughout 2025. Celebrating the rich architectural heritage and social history of Bedford Park, the events are open to everyone and were widely promoted under the specially designed 150th logo. This page was updated throughout 2025 as a record of the commemorative year.
Events so far (and still to come):
- January to March
- New Year’s Day — Wednesday 1 January, 4.30pm at St Michael’s: A Viennese New Year concert, led by David Juritz, former leader of the Mozart Players. Report. Photographs.
- Sunday 2 and 16 February at 3.00pm at St Michael’s: Brandenburg Concertos series by Chiswick Chamber Orchestra, led by Sandy Burnett and Andrew Pears. Performers. Photographs.
- Saturday 1 March, 11am to 8pm at St Michael’s: Hymnathon 150 — singing 150 hymns, with choirs from Chiswick and Hounslow, raising £25,000 for St Michael’s Heritage Conservation Fund. Report and video. Photos: Part 1. Part 2. Top 20 Countdown.
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- May to July
- Wednesday 7 May: Bedford Park Society’s celebratory event at the George IV, and preview of its exhibition. Report.
- Friday 9 May to Monday 19 May: Bedford Park Society’s exhibition focussing on the community and communities attracted to the garden suburb — artistic, political, social and professional – displayed in St Michael & All Angels Church. Photographs.
- Friday 6 to Sunday 22 June: Bedford Park Festival including Green Days (7 and 8 June) opening by historian Al Murray.
- Thursday 12 June: WB Yeats Birthday Poetry Evening and Sunday 15 June: WB Yeats Literary Walk, led by Cahal Dallat.
- Monday 16 June: When Cadbury met Pears in Bedford Park, with Deborah Cadbury and Andrew Pears
- Friday 20 June: The Victorian Society and Bedford Park: Open House
- Sunday 21 June: The Bedford Park Walk with John Scott & Dr Pamela Bickley
- Sunday 22 June: Choral Festival Mass with Bedford Park Orchestra and Chorus.
- Wednesday 9 July: launch of Bedford Park Society’s anniversary publication ‘Beautiful Bedford Park’, distributed free to local residents and available more widely.
- Wednesday 9 July: Exploring Chiswick: Summer Challenge opens – Quiz celebrating 150 years of Bedford Park. Download here.
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- September to December
- 10 to 15 September: Chiswick Book Festival featuring anniversary events. Details
- Sunday 14 September: The Victorian Society ‘Open House’ Details
- Monday 15 September: Exploring Chiswick: Summer Challenge closes – Quiz celebrating 150 years of Bedford Park. Download here.
- Monday 15 September to Monday 22 September : Bedford Park Society’s exhibition returns to be displayed in St Michael & All Angels Church.
- Tuesday 16 September to Saturday 20 September: Bedford Park Society ‘Good Life’ tour of garden cities and suburbs, led by Nicholas Friend.
- Tuesday 16 September: Ealing Civic Society Lecture on the history of Bedford Park. Details
- Wednesday 24 September: Bedford Park Society’s annual lecture : 1875 – Bedford Park and the world that shaped it, by Nicholas Friend.
- Monday 20 October to Monday 3 November : Bedford Park Society’s exhibition returns for final display in St Michael & All Angels Church.
- Wednesday 22 October: I Dreamt I Dwelt – Irish composers and Bedford Park’s Heyday with Irish Heritage – See details.
- Monday 27 October: Artistic Dress at Liberty & Co – talk by Anna Buruma at Voysey House – Details and tickets.
- Sunday 23rd November: Chiswick Chamber Orchestra concert, led by Sandy Burnett and Andrew Pears – Vivaldi: The Four Seasons; Vaughan Williams: Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis. Tickets.
NOTES TO EDITORS
* Bedford Park was founded in 1875 as the first garden suburb and its origins were inspired by the Aesthetic Movement of the 1870s. It immediately attracted a community of artists, architects and other aesthetic types and was immortalised in G.K. Chesterton’s story, The Man Who Was Thursday. An advertisement of the time proclaimed it to be “the healthiest place in the world (Annual Death Rate under 6 per thousand)”.
* Bedford Park houses, in the Queen Anne style of architecture, are based on designs by Victoria architects Norman Shaw, E. W. Godwin, E.J. May and Maurice B. Adams. Pretty tree-lined avenues of family homes with gardens were interspersed with artists’ studios. Community buildings, including the Church and Parish Hall, the Stores, a School of Art, the Tabard Inn and the Club, helped to create an integrated ‘village-like’ community, living in ‘sweetness and light’. See Bedford Park Society’s Galleries.
* Among Bedford Park’s ‘progressive’ early residents were the poet W.B. Yeats, dramatist Sir Arthur Pinero, architects C.A. Voysey, Maurice Adams and E.J. May, actors William Terriss and Florence Farr and artists T.M. Rooke and Lucien Pissarro, whose father Camille painted several views from the house.
* It was described by the Poet Laureate and heritage campaigner John Betjeman as “the most significant suburb built in the last century, probably the most significant in the western world.” Bedford Park’s buildings and community spirit became an inspiration and model for the creators of later garden suburbs and cities in Britain and around the world.
* During the 1960s some of the houses were demolished and others increasingly came under threat. In 1967, after a campaign supported by John Betjeman, The Bedford Park Society and St Michael & All Angels Church, Bedford Park became a conservation area. More than 350 houses are listed as Grade II and the church and inn are Grade II*.
