Fanny Rollo Wilkinson (1855–1951), recently commemorated with a blue plaque on her former home in Shaftesbury Avenue, was probably Britain’s first professional woman landscape gardener, designing scores of public gardens and playgrounds, many of which can still be found across the city today.

Friday 8 March is International Women’s Day and a few days before – on 5 March – Camden Local Studies and Archives Centre is hosting an illustrated talk by Dr Rebecca Preston (London Blue Plaques Historian, English Heritage).

The talk will focus on Wilkinson’s life and work in the area today known as Camden, where she lived from 1885 to 1906.  She worked in Red Lion Square and St George’s Gardens, among other places. It will also chart her wider career in the suffrage movement and in the promotion of horticultural education for women.

Tuesday 5 March 2024 at 6pm Camden Local Studies & Archives Centre 2nd Floor, Holborn Library, 32-38 Theobalds Road, London WC1X 8PA