So we went for a walk in Harwich, where the ‘Secret Gardens of Harwich’ were open and in some sense ‘walkable.’
It so happens that the Nicholson horticultural bookshelf contains three books with ‘secret garden’ in the title - The Secret Gardens of Hollywood – but honey ALL gardens are secret in Hollywood; The Secret Gardens of East Anglia – at least some of which have open days, and one book simply called Secret Gardens, which contains at least one garden I’ve walked in. I know there are plenty of other ‘secret garden’ books.
The weekend walk in Harwich consisted mostly of strolling from one small domestic garden to another – private rather than secret I’d have said - but it was possible to clock up a mile or two on the streets. None of the gardens was large and some were very small, so that once inside visitors shuffled rather than walked. It was fine, though I can’t imagine Iain Sinclair much less Baudelaire, doing this kind of thing.
There is something strange but very appealing about finding yourself in other people’s garden, in their personal space as it were. Obviously you’re not trespassing because they’ve opened their garden to the public, revealed their secrets, but nevertheless there is some mild sense of intrusion. I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t want a bunch of strangers traipsing around my own garden, though I’m equally sure that not many would want to, not even for charity.
Every garden had something of interest
But the best, if you asked me, was the sunken garden at Quayside court, attached to a block of flats rather than a house. It had a slight Alice in Wonderland theme.
Of course there are things in Harwich that aren’t secret and aren’t gardens but are still interesting, especially to wanderers like me. Hell, I even found a Thomasson:
