Chumleigh World Garden
Photo: Marathon / CC BY-SA 2.0, modified.
Overview
Chumleigh World Garden is a multicultural garden within Chumleigh Gardens in Burgess Park, South London. It was created in 1995 to reflect the diversity of the local community. The garden is not a single Japanese garden; it is a set of linked “world garden” areas, including English, Oriental, African / Caribbean, Islamic and Mediterranean sections. The Japanese relevance belongs within the broader Oriental Garden / Asian-inspired component rather than as a separate orthodox Japanese garden.
History
Chumleigh Gardens occupies the former Female Friendly Society Asylum, a group of early nineteenth-century almshouses now integrated into Burgess Park. The World Garden was established in 1995 as a multicultural landscape reflecting the ethnic and cultural diversity of the surrounding Southwark community. The project followed earlier European Community Heritage Campus activities held in Burgess Park in 1992 and 1993, which helped seed the idea for a community-based world garden.
The garden became one of the distinctive smaller landscapes within Burgess Park, alongside the wider post-war park landscape, lake, heritage buildings and community facilities. Parks & Gardens records Chumleigh Gardens as containing both a World Garden and an English Garden, while later local descriptions describe the World Garden as a sequence of culturally themed spaces around and behind the former almshouses. In 2026, Friends of Burgess Park announced events celebrating 30 years of the World Garden, confirming the garden’s continuing local identity and public use.
Design features
The garden is composed as a series of small linked cultural garden spaces rather than one unified Japanese design. Descriptions identify English, Oriental, African / Caribbean, Islamic and Mediterranean garden areas, with planting and landscape details intended to represent different parts of the world. Because the Japanese or East Asian element is part of a multicultural “world garden” ensemble, the site should be recorded as a hybrid / mixed garden, not as a formal Japanese stroll, dry or tea garden.
Garden elements
Waters and islands
Stones
Current status
Extant public multicultural garden within Burgess Park. It remains freely accessible as part of the park, with recent community events marking 30 years of the World Garden.