LONDON BOTANIC GARDENS.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 20107, 10 December 1930, Page 15

LONDON BOTANIC GARDENS.

REVERSION TO THE PUBLIC. (rao M OTJR OYFK CORRESPONDENT.! LONDON, October 31., When the lease of tho Royal Botanic Society expires next April the gardens in Regent's Park are to be thrown open to the public. A proposal that a Folk Museum, to take the form of a series of English c. stages of various periods, should be established in the gardens is being considered by the committee representing the Board of Education and tho Office of Works. If the committee should decide in favour of the scheme it is possible that the grounds of St. John's Lodge, on the north-east boundary of the Botanic Gardens, may be incorporated with it, as the lease of the property has fallen in. In declining to renew the lease the Commissioners of Crown Lands have followed the policy laid down some years ago of abstaining from renewing "the lease of any enclosure or reserved space when it expires, so as to allow the land to revert to the public use. In process of time various other properties in the Regent's Park area will be affected, including St. Dunstan's, Bedford College, Regent's Park College, St. Katharine's Lodge, and the Holme, occupied by Sir John Dance. Some of these, however, have many years to run before the leases expire. Bedford College has a Crown lease till 2010. When tho Royal Botanic Gardens were inaugurated in 1839 the ground formed part of what was originally forest land. The Fellows placed their case before Mr Lansbury, and urged him to reconsider the decision as to the lease. Mr Lansbury, it is understood, gave the Society no hope of such a course, but promised to consider any suggestions the Fellows might make as to the arrangement of the grounds and the perpetuation of the Society's scientific experimental work.