About this Event
A walk around part of what, in the 17th century, was King James I’s Mulberry Garden, planted with 10,000 mulberry trees in 1609/10 to feed silkworms, as part of his plans to start an English silk industry.
As well as discovering 10 mature mulberry trees in fruit – black, white and a Paper Mulberry – the walk takes in a beautiful Wren Church (St James’s), St James’s Square, Henry VIII’s Tudor St James’s Palace (exterior), and the site of King James's celebrated Mulberry Garden.
Mature white mulberries (the natural host of the Bombyx mori silk moth and its silkworms) are quite rare in England, but we will see two on this walk.
Peter will point out the differences between the black and white species (and the so-called Paper Mulberry) and explain how mulberry trees arrived in England 1500 years before James I imported them for his silk venture.
Meet Peter Coles just inside the Front Gate (on Piccadilly), of St James’s Church, 197 Piccadilly London W1J 9LL.
What3words: craft.today.pints
This walk ends at The Lodge Café, 1 Hyde Park Corner, Knightsbridge, London W1J 7NT next to Hyde Park Tube station.
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
St James's Piccadilly, 197 Piccadilly, London, United Kingdom
GBP 0.00