Phantom Favourite Front Gardens (10)

Flip sides of a coin today, folks, or, to be more precise, flip sides of a block.

Some of the Phantom's fave front gardens are very formal, others, I just love for their sheer exuberance - and this is one of them.

Here, in King William Walk, just by the Cutty Sark, lives a little house with owners that love to put on a show. Every inch of their garden, despite its having a grille over a basement, is covered in pots and tubs of colourful plants, both bedding and permanent.

Window boxes full of pelagoniums, tall tobacco plants, yuccas, trailers - all sorts, in all sorts of containers, offset by hedging and lush dark greens - and, of course, the fabulous Regency/post Regency buildings. A real joy.


Which makes me all the sadder when I turn the corner into College Approach. Same buildings; perhaps even better setting - but look at it. One measly creeper and a few bin bags, the sum total of front gardenry going on here.

This row of fabulous buildings could look absolutely amazing. But they don't. What a shame.