Bedford Park 150 – A summer of celebration

Image: The Big Sing 2022

A season of events celebrating 150 years of Bedford Park’s history, culture and architecture

By Torin Douglas

A summer of celebratory events to mark the 150th anniversary of Bedford Park will begin next month with a community ‘Big Sing’ on the May Bank Holiday and a special exhibition of stories and images created by the Bedford Park Society.

Celebrating the rich architectural heritage and social history of Bedford Park, the first garden suburb, the events are open to everyone.

Following Chiswick’s ‘Big Sing for the King’ and ‘Big Jubilee Sing’ in recent years, St Michael & All Angels Church and The Tabard pub are inviting local residents to take part in the ‘Big Sing 150’ on the lawn outside the church.

From 4.30pm on Bank Holiday Monday 5 May, when street parties are being encouraged, songs will mark VE Day 80 as well as celebrating 150 years of Bedford Park. They will include hits from the ‘golden’ charts of 1967, the year the Bedford Park Festival was launched.

READ ALSO: Bedford Park to celebrate its 150th Anniversary in 2025

Two days later, the Bedford Park Society will preview its anniversary exhibition at a celebratory event in the Boston Room of the George IV.

Entitled “The Community at Bedford Park 1875-2025 – Ahead of the World in Everything?”, the exhibition focuses on the various communities of Bedford Park from its earliest days to modern times.

Stories and rarely seen images and illustrations will paint a vivid picture of the many different groups attracted to the first garden suburb – political, social, professional and recreational.

The event on Wednesday 6 May runs from 7:30pm to 9:30pm. Tickets cost £35 per person and include drinks and canapés: a full bar will also be available.

The Chiswick Calendar is running a series of memoirs of people who have spent their childhood growing up in Bedford Park.

READ ALSO: Bedford Park 150 – Sybil Pearce remembers her Edwardian childhood

READ ALSO: Bedford Park 150 – Terry Jardine remembers his wartime childhood

Two more events take place before the end of April: a concert performance of two poems by WB Yeats, which the Nobel Prize winner wrote in Bedford Park, and a Walking Tour of Bedford Park by Peter Murray OBE, for NLA which runs the London Festival of Architecture.

In May, the 40th anniversary of the theatre at the Tabard pub in Bedford Park will be marked by an article in the Brentford & Chiswick Local History Society Journal by Wesley Henderson-Roe.

Events will continue in June at Green Days weekend and the Bedford Park Festival, which will include sessions and walks celebrating WB Yeats, John Betjeman and other key figures in the area’s history. Watch for separate announcement.

During that month, the Bedford Park Society will publish an anniversary publication celebrating the architectural beauty of the first garden suburb.

Forthcoming events celebrating 150 years of Bedford Park:

•  Friday 25 April: Performance of WB Yeats’ Lake Isle of Innisfree and Down by the Salley Gardens in a concert by Harriet Burns and Ian Tindale, at St Peter’s Acton Green, 7pm. ·
• Saturday 26 April: NLA Walking tour of Bedford Park, led by Peter Murray OBE, 10.30am to 12.30pm.
• Monday 5 May: The Big Sing 150, marking 150 years of Bedford Park and VE Day 80, led by St Michael & All Angels Church and the Tabard pub, 4.30pm
• Wednesday 7 May: Bedford Park Society Anniversary Event & Exhibition Preview – Boston Room at the George IV, 7.30pm to 9.30pm – Tickets on sale.
• Friday 9 to 23 May: Bedford Park Society Exhibition in St Michael & All Angels Church, open 9am to 5pm
• In May: The theatrical history of The Tabard pub, marking the 40th anniversary of its theatre upstairs. Article in the Brentford & Chiswick Local History Society Journal, on sale here.
• Friday 6 to 22 June – Bedford Park Festival, including Green Days (7  and 8 June) and other commemorative events. Watch for separate announcement.
• In June – Bedford Park Society anniversary publication, to be distributed free to homes in Bedford Park.