Jersey Gardens, Osterley -
Jersey Gardens' story...... 
 
 Jersey Gardens is a 3.25-hectare site situated in the London Borough of Hounslow. The Local Authority acquired the site in 1927 from the Osterley Sand & Gravel Company.
 
  It had previously been a gravel pit, with the gravel being used to build the banks at Osterley Tube Station on the Great West Road (A4).
 
  The Gardens were created between 1929 and 1932, the outstanding feature being a sunken rock garden.
 
  The area remaining was landscaped at great effort and cost, resulting in an unique gardens area composed of numerous species of trees, bushes, alpine shrubs, dell, and several grassed areas.
 
  Two of the trees were planted in commemoration of the coronations of Kings George V and VI and are still standing. One is located by the locked gates located on to the Great West Road, the other between the path and fence on the north side, parallel to St Mary’s Crescent.
 
  The sunken garden was created, following the existing contours of the land; the aim of the creation of such a garden was “to make one of the most unique and uncommon gardens around London."
 
 
  This is indeed what they did: although there are alpine gardens from this period across the country, it appears there are none in London.
 
  Upon completion The Gardens were seen to be a credit to the borough “an extraordinary transformation of what had been an eyesore and little more than a dust heap,” Mr Heath (Chairman of Parks & Open Spaces Committee) 1932. “It was one of the most wonderful works ever carried out in Hounslow and an example to other authorities of what could be done with a piece of land.”
 
  The scale and sophistication of the original rock garden makes Jersey Gardens a site of particular historic interest. About the time The Gardens were constructed the local council also bought a piece of land nearer to Thornbury Road on which was erected a Branch Library and by the side of it a Bowling Green was created - (Osterley Library opened in November 1935).
 
  The Gardens had 3 shelters in all and the main raised one was called the “Top Shelter”. (We currently use the term “pavilion”). This shelter had 4 partitions resulting in separate enclosed areas providing privacy.