St Anne's Churchyard

Welcome to St Anne's Churchyard

 This is the only green space serving dense urban area of lower Soho and is used extensively by The Soho School who have raised beds within the garden where the school children practice growing vegetables. Apart from the school children who regularly use the churchyard the other main group is Soho Green which is made up of residents living in the area.

This site won it's first Green Flag in 2007 and the Management Plan can be viewed by clicking on the highlighted link.

To see a 360 degree tour of the site click on the highlighted link.

Location

Wardour Street, Soho, London, W.1.

Tube

The nearest tube station are Piccadilly (Bakerloo and Piccadilly lines) and Leicester Square (Piccadilly and Northern Lines).

Buses

There are a number of Buses that run a long Shaftesbury Avenue including route 38 and 19.

Facilities

• The garden, which is classified as a pocket park, comprises lawns, bedding and shrub areas.
• Donated Benches
• Children's toilet

 History

The original church and churchyard date from 1686 and it is estimated that there were over 100,000 burials within the ¾ acre churchyard up to 1853 when all burials in churchyards were stopped by an act of parliament.

In 1891 the Metropolitan Public Gardens Association laid out the Churchyard as a public garden which was officially opened by lady Hobhouse on the 27 June 1892. Responsibility for the garden passed to the City of Westminster in 1903. The most eminent person buried in the churchyard was William Hazlitt, essayist, who died in 1830.

In 2003/04 the "Wall of Light" perimeter fencing was installed

The Wall of Light was commended by The Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors in 2004 as follows:

"Commended in the Community benefit category, RICS Awards 2004.

Unfortunately, this London churchyard had became a meeting place for drug addicts and dealers who were gaining access at night, which meant that in the morning the gardens were littered with used needles and other rubbish.

So a group of local residents decided to take action to regenerate the churchyard so that it could fulfil its potential as a welcoming urban open space. The group managed to organise the building of a new security fence with oak posts and a stainless steel mesh.

They also had fibre optic lights installed which shine onto the mesh. Six colours can be projected onto the screen in blocks of colour or programmed as a dynamic light display. This is the first time fibre optic lighting has been used together with stainless steel mesh in this way in the UK."