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A green haven

Peace Garden
Photo by Bill Maskell, Patcham Area Editor

Comments about this page

  • When the gardens were first laid out in the 1920s the central low-hedged feature enclosed a small pond in the centre. In the pond was a stone nymph who gazed into the depths at the northern end of the pool. Does anyone know whatever became of her?

    By Peter Booth (27/10/2006)
  • My friend Sylvia Cooper and I lived opposite the Peace Gardens and played regularly there as small children. One day when the pond was a sheet of ice I waded out into the middle. The freezing water came over the top of my wellingtons and I was in trouble when I arrived home. Fortunately it wasn’t too deep! I used to know a Peter Booth who lived at Withdean. I think he worked for Shoreham Airport taking aerial photos. Is that you?

    By Una Aldridge (Mitchell) (03/11/2009)
  • I loved the Peace Garden and as a child spent a lot of time there. I remember roller skating in the gazebo if it rained and we used to float our shoes across the pond. (And I thought I was a well-behaved child.) I also did some of my courting there, with the seating recessed into the hedges it felt secluded.

    By June Churchill (nee Bates) (22/01/2010)
  • I visited the Peace Gardens last summer. I wish I hadn’t, I could have cried. They are totally neglected. The flower beds were full of brambles and even a horse chestnut (about 3′ tall) in one border. Only the grass is kept short, that is all. The gazebo has fallen victim to the vandals with spray cans. How can the parks and gardens neglect it so?

    By June Churchill (17/03/2013)
  • I think it would be well worth while revisiting the Peace Gardens. In the last year the Patcham U3A have taken the gardens under their wing. They are now making head way restoring the beds and keeping the weeds under control. Well done Patcham U3A!

    By PG (31/05/2013)
  • I intend to revisit the Peace gardens next time I’m back in Patcham. I was born there in 1938 and our house in Mayfield Crescent was probably built c 1935 /6. I used to play in the PG’s and later attended the nearby school in the Old London Road for a year when Patcham Juniors became oversubscribed. Mum used to shop at the Co-op and I’ve never forgotten her share (divvi) number – 43038! Most of the parade of shops opposite have changed hands now. Thank God there’s still the florist there where we can buy flowers to put on my parent’s grave in All Saints Churchyard. Next door to the florist was what we called “The Ups & Downs” which (it was said) were the foundations of a proposed cinema! A great place to ride round on bikes. When I was 12 I joined the ATC who used the OLD London road School as their HQ (225 Sqdn). Happy days.

    By John Snelling (02/04/2021)
  • John, your bike track was to be a cinema!
    Records at The Keep archive[formerly held at B&H Building Control in Hove Town Hall] for Old London Rd show – “Land adjacent to The Elms” 1st May 1951 ‘outline application for a cinema’. Later this became the Park Court flats.

    By Dr Geoffrey Mead (02/04/2021)

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