A communal garden is a normally formal garden

Garden

A garden is a planned space, usually outdoors, set aside for the display, cultivation, and enjoyment of plants and other forms of nature. The garden can incorporate both natural and man-made materials. The most common form today is known as a residential garden, but the term garden has...

 for shared use by a number of local residents, typically in an urban setting. The term is especially used in the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

. The centre of many city squares and crescents (e.g., especially in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

) are maintained as communal gardens.

Despite the name, and the fact that they typically look like a small public park, such gardens are normally privately by jointly owned, with sharing of maintenance costs. Access may be restricted by locked gates, with keys available for residents, or only unlocked during daytime. They are often surrounded by tall railings designed to keep people out.

One of the scenes in the 1999 film Notting Hill

Notting Hill (film)

Notting Hill is a 1999 British romantic comedy film set in Notting Hill, London, released on 21 May 1999. The screenplay was by Richard Curtis, who had written Four Weddings and a Funeral. It was produced by Duncan Kenworthy and directed by Roger Michell...

 involves the two main characters, Anna (Julia Roberts

Julia Roberts

Julia Fiona Roberts is an American actress. She became a Hollywood star after headlining the romantic comedy Pretty Woman , which grossed $464 million worldwide...

) and William (Hugh Grant

Hugh Grant

Hugh John Mungo Grant is an English actor and film producer. He has received a Golden Globe Award, a BAFTA, and an Honorary César. His films have earned more than $2.4 billion from 25 theatrical releases worldwide. Grant achieved international stardom after appearing in Richard Curtis's...

), breaking into private and locked communal gardens by climbing over the wall at night after a dinner party. The communal gardens used were Rosmead Gardens in Rosmead Road, Notting Hill

Notting Hill

Notting Hill is an area in London, England, close to the north-western corner of Kensington Gardens, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea...

, London.

See also

• Allotment gardens
• Arundel Gardens
  Arundel Gardens
  Arundel Gardens is a street in Notting Hill, London, located between Ladbroke Grove and Kensington Park Road. It was built in the 1860s, towards the later stages of the development of the Ladbroke Estate, until that time a largely rural area west of the expanding suburbs of London.-History:In 1852...
  
  , with communal gardens behind the houses
• Community garden
• Garden square
  Garden square
  A garden square is an open space with buildings surrounding a garden, often located in fashionable urban areas. There are many garden squares in London, England, for example. The large estates in London, e.g., the Bedford Estate in Bloomsbury, included garden squares in their development....