Reminder: Water Gardens open today
Bushy Park’s newly restored Water Gardens will re-open to the public Friday 2nd October 2009.
The 18th-century Baroque feature has been restored to its former glory with a £780,000 reconstruction project that included archaeological work to dig out the buried structure of the cascading fountain, restoring the original gravity-powered water flow and general planting and landscaping.
Photo: Sunshine Soon
It’s certainly a remarkable transformation considering that at one point the upper pool had been used by the Admiralty to test mines and in it’s latter years being left for nature to reclaim before being handed back to the Parks in the mid 1990’s.
The cascade is fed by the river Longford which was dug by Charles I to supply Hampton Court Palace with water for its various fountains and water features.
The gardens were officially opened at a ceremony on Thursday by Princess Alexandra – see here greeting actors dressed up in attire from when the gardens first flourished 300 years ago.
Photo: Brian Holder (Teddington Society)
Click here to see the location within the Park or download the official leaflet.
