Camden New Journal - by SUNITA RAPPAI Published: 9 August 2007
Award-winning Eric Rayner in his Heath Hurst Road garden
Awards for horticulturalists who make gardens glow
THEY range from tiny balcony displays to full-size gardens, but they have one thing in common – a prestigious Heath and Hampstead Society award for brightening up the street scape. Eight of Hampstead’s finest front gardens have been singled out for the Society’s Seen from the Street awards, set up some 15 years ago to enhance the area – and discourage the trend of converting front gardens into car-parking spaces.
Among the winners are a balcony in Antrim Mansions, Antrim Road, a beautiful front garden in Lyndhurst Road and a colourful display on three levels of a house in Heath Hurst Road.
Eric Rayner, 81, one of the winners from Heath Hurst Road, said: “You decorate your front garden the way you decorate your house. My father was a keen gardener – he would be very proud of me.”
Two other gardens, in Belsize Avenue and Eton Avenue were highly commended while Gayton Road residents and the Flask Pub in Flask Row were also congratulated for their hanging baskets.
Christine Winterburgh from the Heath and Hampstead Society, who organised the awards, said: “Because of the rain, it’s been a struggle for gardeners to achieve the results they’d like this year so they all deserve particular congratulations.”