LeBrun, Douglas, Bellamy Garden

Santa Cruz de Tenerife · Category: Memory · Subcategory: Sites of memory · Year: Siglo XIX

Until the late 19th century, the Salamanca neighbourhood was nothing more than a group of farmland and some isolated houses. Originally, these lands were known as the Llanos de Salamanca because they were owned by Francisco de Salamanca, a figure who arrived in Tenerife shortly after the conquest and ended up settling in these parts.

From the mid-19th century, in the lower part of this area, there was a beautiful garden, now disappeared, located in what would today be the development just above the Sacred Heart church. 

The first owner and founder of this garden was Elías LeBrun, a merchant and business partner of the firm LeBrun & Davidson , a company dedicated to the export of all kinds of crops, especially wines and cochineal. LeBrun occupied and began working these lands in the first half of the 19th century.   

The garden apparently had a regular design, geometrically ordered, with a clear intention to contrast with the surrounding countryside. Supported by the gentle slope of the land, it was arranged in three stepped terraces, with the manor house occupying a central place at the top of the estate, allowing splendid views over the city and the port with the Anaga mountain range as a backdrop. The layout was symmetrical with respect to the central path leading to the house, which acted as the main axis of the composition. Perpendicular transverse paths formed different quadrants for plantations, all responding to a gardening design of classical tradition with a clear intention to subject nature to rational order. On the first terrace, near the house, low ornamental plantings predominated, organised in regular flowerbeds forming vegetal carpets. On the second and third terraces, shrubs and large species were planted, forming small forests of laurels, acacias, eucalyptus and even two magnificent cypresses that stood out clearly among the whole ensemble.

The LeBrun family lived here until 1886, when it passed into the hands of the English couple Mordey Douglas and Emma Payne Murgrave, who dedicated it as a rest home for foreigners in need of a mild climate. The Douglas couple maintained this sanatorium until 1910, when they decided to put the property up for sale, which in 1914 was occupied by Farrow Siddall Bellamy, representative of the house Elder Dempster.

The Bellamy family enhanced the existing vegetation in the garden by introducing fruit trees, exotic species of vivid colours and, of course, the very English lawn parterre as a space for play and outdoor activities. They also added various architectural elements, such as pergolas, wooden arches and even a singular grotto, which gave the garden a very original charm.

In 1947, after the death of Farrow Bellamy, his heirs decided to urbanise the estate, a process that began five years later, in 1952.

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