Welcome to Corringham

The garden

Corringham has a beautiful communal garden which is private to the block.

The four private residences that originally occupied the space where Corringham now stands had a garden each. When Kenneth Frampton designed the new block of flats, he was tempted to use part of the garden space to have more freedom to realise the 48 apartments the private developer had requested. Fortunately, Westminster Council insisted that the new building should have the same outer dimensions as the original building. This led the architect to use the more compact scissor design - and to realise the modernist idea of an "urban landscape", with stacked housing leaving space for communal gardens.

Until the late 1990s the garden remained relatively plain. It consisted of a lawn bordered by a conifer hedge, shaded in summer by four plane trees and three lime trees.

Two Corringham residents, Tony and Lyla Harling, brought the garden back to life. Shrubs and roses were planted, the hedges were trimmed, flower pots appeared and the lawn was mown in stripes. Today, the garden is full of flowers and colour all year round. It is maintained by a professional gardening company, Druantia Gardens.

Early garden plan by Tony and Lyla Harling

The garden and its trees are in the Bayswater conservation area, so they are protected by Westminster Council. The London Squares Preservation Act 1931, which was agreed to be applicable to Craven Hill Gardens in 1933, provides further security that Corringham's little park near Hyde Park will be preserved.

West view

East view

South-west view

South-east view

Corringham, London W2 3EH