The Metropolitan Public Gardens Association then spent some £10,000 on the layout of the park, and it was opened on 13 April 1889.

Minet family philanthropy also resulted in the construction on the adjacent Knatchbull Road of the neighbouring St James the Apostle church (now converted to flats),[3] the Minet Library, and Longfield Hall, a community hall.

[4] The park was designed by Fanny Wilkinson, Britain's first professional woman landscape gardener.

[6] It is named after Joseph Myatt, a tenant market gardener, who grew strawberries and rhubarb (for which he was famed) on the land in the 19th century.

The MFPPG is run by local volunteers and was chaired from 2000 until 2011 by Lindsay Avebury (the daughter of Pamela Hansford Johnson and the wife of Eric Lubbock).