THIS does look like a wonderful evening for anyone interested in the area or in gardening  or perhaps even in just general horticulture and biology. The Tradescant legacy should be 
more widely known in South Lambeth

We have scammed this article from a fantastic local website ( tradescant blog  and reproduced it here.) Our thanks to them.

Talk will mark the 350th anniversary of the end of the Tradescant gardening dynasty

Biographer of the Tradescants Jennifer Potter is to give a talk at the Tate South Lambeth Library on Wednesday 18th April 2012 at 7.30pm.

The author of Strange Blooms, The Curious Lives and Adventures of the John Tradescants will present In his father’s footsteps: the life and times of John Tradescant the Younger, gardener to King Charles I, exploring  the son’s achievements as royal gardener, plant collector and guardian of the Tradescant cabinet of curiosities at South Lambeth, which in effect became Britain’s first public museum.

22nd April 2012 will mark the 350th anniversary of the death of John Tradescant the Younger which saw the end of the brief but extraordinary gardening dynasty that introduced and popularised so many of today’s favourite plants.  Tradescant Road and Walberswick Street now stand on the site of the Tradescants’ gardens in South Lambeth so the Tradescant Area Residents Association has teamed up with the Friends of Tate South Lambeth Library to mark the anniversary by organising this free event.

Drawing on her acclaimed double biography Ms Potter will take a sympathetic look at the difficulties the younger man experienced in following in the footsteps of his much loved and much respected father, and end by reading extracts from Advice to a Son, her fictionalised letter from the dying John Tradescant the Elder. Had the son followed his father’s advice, Oxford’s Ashmolean Museum might today be celebrated as the Tradescantian Museum, and the younger Tradescant might have ended his days a wiser and a happier man.

There will also be an opportunity to ask questions.

Biography: Jennifer Potter has to date published three novels (set variously in Martinique, the Yemen in 1911, and France) and four works of non-fiction: Secret Gardens; Lost Gardens, written to accompany the Channel 4 television series on which she worked as associate producer and series producer; her double biography of the John Tradescants, Strange Blooms, The Curious Lives and Adventures of the John Tradescants, long-listed for the Duff Cooper Memorial Prize; and most recently The Rose, A True History, heralded by Gardens Illustrated as ‘a remarkable and gripping work of scholarship’ and by the Daily Telegraph as ‘the finest disquisition on the early history and symbolism of the rose’.

Two new works will appear next year: a fourth novel, The Angel Cantata; and Flower Power, her study of seven flowers that have exerted power or influence over human societies. An Honorary Teaching Fellow on the University of Warwick’s Writing Programme, Potter reviews regularly for the Times Literary Supplement and in September returns to King’s College London as a Royal Literary Fund Fellow.

Strange Blooms, The Curious Lives and Adventures of the John Tradescants  is available in paperback, published by Atlantic Books, recommended price £9.99, ISBN 978-1-84354-335-0.

A large stained-glass window has been unveiled in the Palace of Westminster to commemorate Queen Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee.

The piece, designed by a chap who is considered to be extraordinarily  brilliant  -  An SW 8 British artist John Reyntiens –  Is utterly wonderful  according to those fortunate to have seen his work.  His brilliant glasswork  will go on permanent display above the North Door of Westminster Hall later this year.

Featuring her Royal Arms, it is a gift to the Queen from both Houses of Parliament.

The unveiling came ahead of a speech to peers and MPs.

The Conservative MP Michael Ellis, who chairs the all-party parliamentary group on the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, suggested the gift.

The design and installation are being funded by personal contributions from members of both Houses.

Mr Reyntiens worked with draftsmen, painters and technicians to create the window, which consists of up to 1,500 pieces of glass and is inspired by 17th Century heraldic art.

‘Time consuming’

The window features images of a golden lion and white unicorn on either side of the Royal coat of arms.

The designer told the BBC it was a “very time consuming” process, with some of the pieces being “fired” in the kiln six times.

“I just wanted it to be full of life, exciting and not just like a standard studio production,” he told BBC Radio 4′s World at One.

While demand for stained glass windows was not as great as in past centuries, he said he continued to get commissions for modern buildings and designers had to “diversify”.

He added: “I really wanted this job and I felt I would do it well if I got the opportunity.”

The north window of Westminster Hall has been fitted with plain glass since the Reformation, which was replaced after damage in 1974.

The south window features the arms or initials of members and staff of both Houses who were killed in the Second World War, set around the centrepiece of the Royal Arms of the Queen’s father, King George VI.