Kings Heath Park — From Victorian Estate to Beloved Green Space

Kings Heath Park has been the suburb's green lung for over a century, but its story begins long before it became a public park — in the drawing rooms and counting houses of Victorian Birmingham's industrial elite.

Originally called Victoria Park, the estate's main house was built in 1832. In 1880 it was bought by John Cartland, a wealthy brass-founder whose family had already shaped much of Kings Heath's development through their land holdings around Vicarage Road. The Cartlands were an extraordinarily influential local dynasty — their land and money built schools, churches and roads across the suburb. John Cartland was also an ancestor of the novelist Dame Barbara Cartland.

The family transferred the property to their four sons, who leased it to Frederick Everitt, owner of Kings Heath Brewery. In 1902, following a national financial crisis, the Cartlands formed the Priory Trust Company and transferred the freehold. In 1914, the Trust sold the surrounding land to Birmingham Corporation, which immediately opened it as Kings Heath Park. The house itself became a School of Horticultural Training in 1953, used by students from Pershore College and Bournville College as a working training garden.

The park's most famous chapter began in 1972, when Birmingham City Council partnered with ATV television to create what became known as the Television Garden — the setting for a nationally broadcast gardening programme called Gardening Today, presented by Bob Price and Cyril Fletcher. The presenters started with half an acre of what was described as "barren swamp land" and transformed it into an Elizabethan knot garden with herbs, a greenhouse and a vegetable plot — partly inspired by elderly viewers writing in to say they wanted to grow their own potatoes but couldn't manage the digging. The programme ran for over two decades.

Gardeners' World later moved its filming to Kings Heath Park, with top designers including John Brookes, Dan Pearson, and Joe Swift creating show gardens on site. The park received its prestigious Green Flag status and continues to host the annual Gardener's Weekend Show under the Royal Horticultural Society. Its Victorian-styled tea room remains one of the most visited spots in south Birmingham.

Sources: Thrive Birmingham (public information), Wikipedia (CC BY-SA), Kings Heath Park history records