The former churchyard of St Mary Abbots opened as a public garden in 1953.
Alec Clifton-Taylor memorial gardens were designed in commemoration of Alec Clifton-Taylor, President of The Kensington Society from 1978 until his death in 1985 and are situated next to St Mary Abbots Gardens. The land was formerly wasteland behind the Old Town Hall, which developers agreed to give partly to the Church School and partly as open space.
The decision to make the garden a memorial to Alec Clifton-Taylor arose after a friend of his requested where he might plant a rose garden in his memory