The Garden Museum is housed in the medieval and Victorian church of St Mary-at-Lambeth. The first church on the site was built before the
Norman Conquest, and was integral to the religious centre established by the
Archbishops of Canterbury in the 12th century. The structure was deconsecrated in 1972, and rescued from demolition by the museum's founder, Rosemary Nicholson. The museum opened in 1977 as the world's first museum of garden history; the churchyard was re-designed as a garden. The church is the oldest structure in the
London Borough of Lambeth, except for the crypt of
Lambeth Palace itself, and its burials and monuments are a record of 950 years of a community. But for the Palace, it has perhaps the richest historical story of any building in the borough. In 1062, a wooden church was built on the site by
Goda, sister of
Edward the Confessor; the
Domesday Book of 1086 records 29 tenancies in her manor. Later in the century, it was rebuilt as a stone church and appears to have been at its height of splendour and patronage in the twelfth century, when it functioned as the church to the Archbishops' London lodgings next door. In 1377, the stone tower was built; it was repaired in 1834–1835, but is otherwise intact and visitors can climb the tower for views across London. The body of the church was continually rebuilt and enriched over the centuries but, decisively, in 1851–1852 the aisles and nave were rebuilt by
Philip Charles Hardwick, an architect prominent in the construction of banks and railway stations but not considered to be in the "first rank" of his generation; his father,
Sir Philip Hardwick, designed the
Euston Arch. It is described by
Museum of London Archaeology Service "as an almost complete rebuilding of the old body of the church". The most eye-catching survivals are four of eight corbels in the ceiling of the nave. These are a mix of medieval and Victorian construction. One of the few 20th-century interventions in the church's fabric took place in around 1900, with the insertion of an immersion font and a
baptistery at the base of the tower, said to be one of only two examples in Anglican churches in England. During the
Second World War, the stained glass was badly damaged by bombs and, in the 1950s, the stained glass was replaced by either plain glass or panels by Francis Stephens (1921–2002), including a replica of the "Pedlar's Window". The bombs also broke up the altar donated in 1888 by
Sir Henry Doulton as a memorial to his wife; Doulton's ceramic factory stood about 300 yards to the south. In 1972, the church was made redundant due to its dilapidation and gloom, and also because of changes in the population settlement of the parish: the area by the riverside had become derelict and under-populated, and the vicar wanted a church closer to where the congregation lived. In 1969,
Lambeth Council designated the area around Lambeth Palace as one of the borough's first
conservation areas. Soon after the
Church Commissioners obtained the necessary consents for demolition, the altar, bells and pews were removed. In 1976, Rosemary Nicholson visited the site to see the tomb of
John Tradescant and was shocked to discover the church boarded up in readiness for its demolition. She established the Tradescant Trust, which was awarded a 99-year lease from the
Diocese of Southwark, who continue to own the land. The trust's rescue and repair of the structure became one of the great architectural conservation causes of its time, and the church became a museum. ==St Mary's churchyard and burials==