Loddiges Nursery : Hackney’s hothouse
Photo by yurri I’ve been meaning to find out more about Loddiges for while and share something here I’ve always found the amount of palm trees in Hackney interesting and it appears that it stems back to the nineteenth century and a German man Joachim Conrad Loddiges who came to Hackney to be a gardener until he set up a seed selling business.The business turned into a specialist nursery (on Paragon Road) selling exotic plants to customers all over Europe and is responsible for introducing many varieties to the UK including (according to wikipedia) having a hand in establishing rhubarb.In 1833 Joachim’s son George Loddiges started importing trees from Austrailia and keeping them in a famous tropical hothouse – full of palm trees and was also involved in landscaping Abney Park Cemetery.That’s a very brief overview there is more around the web and particularly on the Wikipedia entry.
From: Plaques of London“
janice
how interesting! i sent a friend a photo i took of a stokey house with a huge palm tree in front and he said if it had come from anyone else he would have thought i’d photoshopped it. wow. the history!
traxcitement
I only recently found out about Conrad Loddiges when I saw the family tomb in Hackney Churchyard, there is a potrait of him in Hackney Museum. There is also a book by The Hackney Society/David Solman ‘Loddiges of Hackney the largest hothouse in the world’ which I haven’t read, but will put on my ‘wish list’.http://www.hackneysociety.org/page_id__41_path__0p11p12p.aspx“
ewebber
@traxcitement – yes, it’s already on my amazon wish list – in case anyone wants to buy me a present 🙂
londiner
David is chair of the trustees of Abney Park. We have his book along with several others about the history of Abney, Stoke Newington and Hackney as well as lots of books on nature and gardening in the Abney Park office. We’re thinking of trying to set up some sort of libary so locals can make use of this book collection. Is this something any of the yeah! Hackneyites might be interested in using? I’d be very interested to hear your ideas and feedback. Ta kx
ewebber
@londiner I think that would be great! There are a lot of interesting Hackney books that aren’t necessarily that readily available
traxcitement
Just finished reading the book, a fascinating insight into the Loddiges family and their nursery. Hard to imagine this massive site existed just off Mare Street. Book is definitely worth a read I picked up a copy in Bookbox Chatsworth Road.
seangubbins
Loddiges also planted out the trees as an arboretum in Abney Park cemetery when it was opened in the 1840s. One of the Loddiges is buried in that cemetery with his wife.