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St Paul's Churchyard,
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Photo: Bench and flowers at Smithfield Rotunda Garden
Photo: Yellow daffodils Photo: Man sitting on bench under blossom trees
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Smithfield Rotunda Garden

West Smithfield

London


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E: parks.gardens@cityoflondon.gov.uk

W: www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/citygardens


Visitor Information

Secluded garden located in the least 'financial' part of the City, moments from Smithfield Meat Market and St Bartholemew's Hospital. A small selection of pubs and restuarants surround the garden, which has wooden benches on which to relax.

In the Middle Ages Smithfield Rotunda – or Smooth Field as it was known – was a grim place of public execution. Heretics, rebels and criminals were burnt, beheaded or boiled and in 1305 Scottish hero William Wallace was hanged, drawn and quartered here. Many religious martyrs were also executed at West Smithfield, including more than 200 Protestants who were burnt at the stake during Queen Mary's reign in the 1550s. But despite its gruesome past, Smithfield Rotunda has been a peaceful public open space for 137 years. A competition-winning stone bench that was unveiled by the Lord Mayor of London in December 2006 is one of the garden's focal points. Designed by students from Edinburgh University, the carving process was managed by apprentice stone masons from Cathedral Works Organisation in Chichester.