Access. Accessible from Kentish Way, Queens Road, and through adjacent The Glades shopping centre. Fully accessible for wheelchair users. Permanent right of way diagonally through park and shopping centre. Dogs are not allowed in this park.
This park has achieved a Green Flag Award® every year since it was first entered in 2019-20, the latest being for 2023-24. The Green Flag Award® scheme recognises and rewards well managed parks and green spaces, setting the benchmark standard for the management of recreational outdoor spaces across the United Kingdom and around the world.
History. Queen’s Garden represents the last remnant of the countryside hugging the old Market Square on the east side of town. It was part of the farmland belonging to Bromley Palace (now the Civic Centre) stretching from the White Hart Inn in the High Street all the way to Widmore Green. By the l8th century it was known as White Hart Field and it was here that the coaching horses could graze and where the town held their cricket matches. Despite its accustomed use by the townsfolk the field remained in the possession of the Lord of the Manor until donated to the town in 1897 on the occasion of Queen Victoria’s Jubilee and on condition it was laid out as a public garden. In recognition of this the diagonal footpath, from Kentish Way, towards and through The Glades to the Market Square, remains an official public ‘Right of Way’ open 24 hours a day!
The Grade 2 listed ornamental gates, which now stand just inside the Kentish Way entrance to the garden, originally stood at the at the end of White Hart Slip entrance from Market Square. This area is now part of the Shopping Centre. The Glades development was highly controversial not least because it finally severed the thousand year old link of the Market Square with open land. The gates are an important feature of the Garden and were donated by Lord Kinnaird and came from Plaistow Lodge although their actual origins and age are unknown.
Early photographs of Queen’s Garden show it as sparsely landscaped. The beauty of the Garden as we know them today with many fine mature trees including several cedars is thanks to the vision of those early council landscape gardeners. The trees forming the boundary with Kentish Way, however were part of the original Palace field boundary along what used to be ‘Love Lane’. This formed part of the original avenue of Limes lining the carriage drive to Bromley Palace. These were all cut down in 1987 when Kentish Way was constructed.
Features. This is an enclosed formal gardens with flower beds, immediately adjacent to The Glades shopping centre and therefore a favourite for people to take a short break from shopping and relax. A number of features can be found here.
Playground for young children is located near to the Kentish Way entrance.
Ornamental flower beds. These colourful flower beds are maintained by the council’s parks contractor and are changed twice a year.
Millenium Rock. A large block of Lewisian Gneiss can be found near the Queens Road entrance.
Development threat. After several years we were unsuccessful with our campaign against the sell off of part of this park (the ‘Italianate Garden’) for the building of some five restaurants. Several of these are now closed, a poor return on the loss of this part of the gardens.
