Edward Kemp (1817- 1891) was born in Streatham and the family lived in Greyhound Lane. Edward Kemp was one of the mid-Victorian period’s most influential landscape gardeners and a respected author of several gardening publications. Despite this, details of his early life are sparse. Born in 1817 in Streatham, then Surrey, he was the son and grandson of Nonconformist tailors. Growing up in an area still essentially rural, his interest in plants led him to train as a landscape gardener at the London Horticultural Society Gardens in Chiswick, before moving to Chatsworth, Derbyshire, to work under Joseph Paxton.
When Paxton was commissioned to design a park for Birkenhead, Wirral, the first publicly funded park in the world, Kemp was appointed to oversee its laying out, eventually being appointed its permanent superintendant. His writing combined with the growing reputation of Birkenhead Park brought him numerous private commissions. Despite this, Kemp remained firmly rooted in Birkenhead, remaining in the town for the rest of his life. In 1863, an assistant park superintendent was appointed and his role became that of ‘Consulting Superintendent’. He never, however, severed his connection with the park, advising the authorities on park-related matters when well into his seventies and living in his house on its periphery until he died and was buried in Flaybrick, the cemetery he had laid out for the Birkenhead Commissioners some thirty years previously. (Source: Elizabeth Davey).
Robert Marnock was one of the leading Scottish horticulturalists and garden designers of the nineteenth century, considered to be one of the best exponents of the Gardenesque school of landscape gardening. Marnock is referred to as a “Giant of 19th Century Gardening” by expert Dr Brent Elliott. He designed the gardens at Park Hill Streatham home of Sir William Leaf and later Sir Henry Tate.
Thomas Moore (1821–1887), gardener and writer on horticulture, was born at Stoke, near Guildford, Surrey. He worked for several years at Dickinson's nursery in Guildford before being employed at Fraser's Lea Bridge nurseries in Leyton, Essex. In 1839. He moved to Park Hill, Streatham, as an under-gardener, in 1842 and became clerk to Robert Marnock, who was laying out the Botanic Society gardens in Regent's Park. n 1848, Moore was appointed curator of the Society of Apothecaries' botanic garden in Chelsea (the Chelsea Physic Garden). Moore died at his home at the Chelsea Physic Garden on 1 January 1887, and was buried in the Brompton cemetery. He left a widow, Elizabeth. They had at least one child, a son. Moore's collection of ferns was bought by the Kew herbarium. (Source: Anne Pimlott Baker and Daily Gardener).
George Sandham. Gardener at Kelso, one of the grandest house on the High Road. Kelso stood behind 152-184 Streatham High Road and fronted the High Road. It was here that George was the gardener. He lived in a cottage in the extensive grounds and it is here his son, the famous cricketer Andy Sandham was born
William George Turner (1833-1904) trained on the Althorpe Estate of the Earl Spencer under Daniel Judd and from 1852 at the Rookery, Streatham Common with Head Gardner William Lushey. The Rookery was owned and occupied by tobacco manufacturer James Hill, his wife Jane, their daughter Ann and 12 servants. The Hill family must have been impressed by William George Turner’s gardening skills,and at the young age of 22, he became the head gardener of The Rookery in 1855, a position he served in for the rest of his life. (Source:graveyardandthings).
