Zen gardens and memories

Zen Garden, San Diego
Originally uploaded by davidjennings.

This photo is of a zen garden five and a half thousand miles away in San Diego. At the Quaker Meeting today, an Islington Tribune article about the burial ground redevelopment was passed round. There I read that Marianne Park, the architect of the new development, cited zen gardens and their sense of quiet as an influence on her design for the Bunhill site. As well as this photograph, I've uploaded a set of others of zen gardens in Portland and San Francisco from a trip I made up the West Coast in 02001.

I met Olive Yarrow, who has been coming to the Bunhill site since before the old adult school and coffee tavern were bombed in the Second World War. She was married in the present Meeting House in 01953. Here are some of her memories of Quaker childhood. In answer to the question I posed a week ago, I understand that there are several Quaker Braithwaites associated with the area, and Braithwaite House is named in tribute to all of them.

At the end of the Meeting, I was asked about this site. It's very much intended to complement the existing sites and histories relating to the area — see the 'Related Sites' links on the right — and anyone is welcome to make comments or suggestions. Click 'comments' on any of the entries, or send me a message.