The place

The Garden Museum is the world’s first museum dedicated to the history of gardening. In 1976, the tomb of two 17th century royal gardeners, John Tradescant the Elder and the Younger, was traced to the churchyard of the deconsecrated Church of St Mary-at-Lambeth, adjacent to Lambeth Palace. It was here that the museum was established.

The brief

As part of a second phase of redevelopment that got under way in 2015, we were appointed to design an intimate, contemporary courtyard garden at the heart of the new, glazed, cloister building designed by Dow Jones Architects, and a new woodland planting between café and street. The garden was intended to catch the eye of passers-by, while offering a bounteous, oasis-like escape from the city.

The design

The garden draws on old and new to create a sheltered, sun-dappled garden of curiosities. Bricks retained from the earlier incarnation now form the path that frames the central planting, and provides the stage for events and entertaining. The cloistered courtyard allows a range of tender plants from all over the world to be grown and features plants discovered by some of the most renowned historic plant hunters including Thunberg, Forrest, Delavayi, Wilson, Hooker and Banks and, more recently, the 20th century plant hunters Bleddyn and Sue Wynn-Jones, James Compton and Dan Hinkley.