Riverside Walk Garden

Welcome to Riverside Walk Garden.

The garden is managed by the City of Westminster's Parks Service. Click on this link to contact the Parks Service

Location

Riverside Walk Garden is located on the bank of the Thames adjacent to Vauxhall Bridge and Millbank.

Tube

The nearest tube station is Pimlico on the Victoria Line.

Buses

The nearest bus route is the 87 which runs along Millbank. There are a number of routes that run along Vauxhall Bridge which is a few minutes walk and these are the 2, 36, 87, 88, 185, 360 and A36

Facilities

The main feature of the garden is that it is a large Open area with seating and grass areas. It is used mainly by office workers at lunch times.

History

The current layout dates from 2004 and the re-landscaping of the garden was funded by London Development Agency, Cross River Partnership, Government Office for London and the Henry Moore Foundation along with the City of Westminster.

Although the garden was created in modern times the area that it occupies was used as a dock and it was from here that criminals being transported to Australia boarded the ships that were to take them. There is a pillar on site whose inscription commemorates this fact. The inscription reads as follows:

"Near this site stood Millbank Prison, which was opened in 1816 and closed in 1890. This buttress stood at the head of the river steps from which, until 1867, prisoners sentenced to transportation embarked on their journey to Australia"

Henry Moore "Locking Piece" Statue.

The garden is also the home to a major piece of artwork. The "Locking Piece" is a Henry Moore statue which is on loan to the garden by the Tate Britain and the Henry Moore foundation. Tate Britain is located on the north side of Millbank directly across from the garden.

Created in 1963/64 Henry Moore described its creation as follows in an extract from the Henry Moore Foundation Archive:

" At one time I was playing with a couple of pebbles that I'd picked up, because behind my far field is a gravel pit and there are thousands of shapes and forms and one only has to go out there and I can find twenty new little ideas if I wish, immediately. Anyhow, I was playing with two pebbles which I found like that and somehow or other they got locked together and I couldn't get them undone and I wondered how they got into position and it was like a clenched fist being tightly … Anyhow, eventually I did get it to [separate]; by turning and lifting, one piece came off the other. This gave one the idea of making two forms which would do that and later I called it 'Locking Piece' because they lock together.

Henry Moore in conversation with Alan Wilkinson, c.1980, HMF archive"

Location Map for Riverside Walk Gardens