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City & Village Tours: 0845 812 5000 info@cityandvillagetours.com
ONE TO DO ON YOUR OWN
Morton & the Lambeth Gardening Forks
I hope one day someone makes a film about Cardinal
Morton. Maybe Hilary Mantel could get the ball rolling
with a book. He’s a really cracking character. Dorset
born and Oxford educated Morton served at the court of
Henry IV but opposed Richard III and is blamed to this
day by the Richard III Society for saddling Richard with
the blame for the murder of the princes in the Tower.
Morton worked his way up through church ranks
serving as canon of Sarum, archdeacon of Winchester,
Bishop of Ely and finally Archbishop of Canterbury to
King Henry V11 from 1486. The following year he
became Lord Chancellor of England instituting a
no-escape taxation policy known as Morton’s Fork.
Henry VII, father to the better-known Henry VIII is
remembered as the Miser King for his frugal nature and
relentless campaign to restore a depleted royal treasury.
Under the principals of Morton’s Fork if the tax man
arrived at your castle and found fine tapestries, roaring
fires and generous banquets you were declared rich and
your taxes were doubled. If the tax collectors arrived to
find a cold castle with no fine tapestries in sight and a
mean dinner table you were judged to be making good
savings and your taxes were doubled!
The red brick tower built by Archbishop Morton is still
the main entrance to Lambeth Palace just across the
river from the Palace of Westminster, which has been
the London home of the Archbishops of Canterbury
for 800 years. Groups of up to 50 people can visit by
pre-booked guided tour costing £10.00 per person.
The 90 minute tour includes the State Rooms of the
Archbishop of Canterbury, the Great Hall, which is now
part of Lambeth Palace Library, the Crypt and Chapel
and a little bit of the garden. There’s surprisingly good
wheelchair access for such an old building and even a
wheelchair that can be borrowed on the day.
To book a group visit to Lambeth Palace book online
at www.ticketmaster.co.uk or call
0844 248 5134.
Next door to Lambeth Palace is the church of St. Mary
Lambeth where Captain Bligh of The Bounty was
buried. Bligh had sailed to Tahiti to collect breadfruit
trees and then set sail for the Caribbean where the
breadfruit was wanted for experiments to see if it would
be a successful food crop to feed the slaves on the sugar
plantations. It was on the Caribbean leg of the voyage
that the mutiny broke out in 1789. You can see Bligh’s
tomb in the churchyard topped by a sculpture of
breadfruit in a bowl made of the artificial Coade Stone
that was made locally until the secret of its ingredients
and manufacture was lost. Also buried at St Mary
Lambeth are the John Tradescants, father and son, the
first great plant collectors and gardeners of British
history. When the church was decommissioned in the
1970s it was saved from demolition by becoming the
home of the Museum of Garden History now known as
The Garden Museum.
Today The Garden Museum is open every day except
the first Monday of the month from 10.30am to 5.00pm
and 4.00pm on Saturdays. The unique collection of
10,000 objects spans 400 years of gardening in Britain
be it at grand country houses or in the back yards of
terraced houses. Group admission is £6.50 per person
when booked in advance and for a further £3.00 per
person you can book a guided tour. There is also a café
that takes group bookings for refreshment and lunch
stops. For Garden Museum group bookings contact
Gavin Ramsey on 0207 401 8865 extension 822.
If you want to keep a lid on costs you could mix a visit
to Lambeth Palace or The Garden Museum with a visit
to Tate Britain, a 20 minute walk or short coach transfer
away, which is free entry and holds the national
collection of British art from 1500 to the present day.
Tate Britain is open daily from 10.00am and also has a
café. The Lowry and the Painting of Modern Life
exhibition will be held at Tate Britain from 25 June to
20 October 2013, admission fee to be announced soon.
Groups must book Tate Britain visits in advance on
0207 887 7777 or email ticketing@tate.org.uk.