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PHOTOGRAPH: MARIANNE MAJERUS; GARDEN DESIGN: TOM STUART-SMITH
As well as adding value to
your home, the latest wave of
designer gardens are essential
to luxury London living,
writes Elfreda Pownall
The London Magazine <#R#>
B
<#L#> The London Magazine
was able to develop organically,
with the preferred dwelling being a
one-family house with a garden.
London dwellers are the lucky
inheritors of that history: at home
we can wind up the drawbridge and
revel in our own private world.
And it is the very privacy of the
spaces held from common view
that gives variety to London’s
gardens. Look behind a row of
identical houses and see how
different their gardens can be: from
orderly evergreen topiary to 17th
century design by Daniel Marot,
and next door a confection of stone,
glass and steel with a digitallyprogrammed lighting scheme.
And, should you seek to sell your
castle, that green space may well be
the key to a successful sale. “A
really cleverly-designed garden, on
a £3m house, could add 10 per cent
to the asking price,” says Richard
Barber of WA Ellis’s Belgravia
office. Kim Turner of Bective
Leslie Marsh’s Kensington office
goes further: “On average, a
landscaped garden in Kensington
can add 10-15 per cent to the value
of the property,” she says. Agents
agree that the size and aspect of a
A LANDSCAPED GARDEN
IN KENSINGTON CAN ADD
10-15 PER CENT TO THE
VALUE OF THE PROPERTY
garden are important (buyers all
want evening sun, for that gin-andtonic moment) and privacy, noise
reduction and control of the
outlook are vital considerations in
a town garden too. But every agent
stresses that a really well-designed
garden is paramount, especially as
many houses now have huge glass
doors that give straight on to the
garden, so that it becomes the
fourth wall.
In winter the garden is a stage
set, beautifully lit at dusk, while in
summer it becomes an outdoor
room, with dining and sitting
areas, rainproof sofas, coffee tables
and fireplaces. The latest craze in
London gardens is the outdoor
kitchen, stocked with hi-tech
cooking appliances. One garden
designer, Charlotte Rowe, has been
asked to install an outdoor shower,
which, in our cool climate could be
a triumph of hope over experience.
PHOTOGRAPHS: MARIANNE MAJERUS (CHARLOTTE ROWE AND STUART CRAINE GARDENS);
JASON HAWKES (AERIAL SHOT OF NOTTING HILL)
ehind the most beautiful
of London’s houses,
from the snowy canyons
of Holland Park to
the mellow Georgian brick of
Hampstead, lie some of the capital’s
ultra-glamorous gardens. London
is truly the garden city: neither
Paris nor New York can rival it for
private green space. From ancient
times London has evolved as a
scattered city. As Steen Eiler
Rasmussen explains in London: The
Unique City, London had the space
to expand and absorb outlying
villages, unlike New York, a
concentrated city confined by space
and forced to build tall. And,
Rasmussen adds, “the Englishman’s
fierce insistence on his own way of
living” meant that, unlike Paris,
our city repelled royal or
governmental diktats. The old
saying ‘an Englishman’s home is
his castle’ prevailed, and London
feature
GLAMOUR IN GREEN Clockwise from left: An outdoor fireplace designed by Charlotte Rowe (below left); a garden incorporating
architectural elements over a rill by designer Stuart Craine; Notting Hill from above, showing the abundance of green space
IN NUMBERS
40%
Percentage of green space
(approx. 173 sq km) in Greater
London. London is the greenest
city of its size in the world
3.8 million
Estimated total number of private
gardens in Greater London, 63 per
cent of which are back gardens
150 sq m
The average size of back
gardens in London
Add to all this the fact that we
also ask our gardens to bring us a
calming glimpse of nature in the
city – rus in urbe for 365 days a year
– it’s quite a tall order for one small
patch of earth. No wonder the top
garden designers are so busy.
Charlotte Rowe is one of the
busiest. She is often involved
from the beginning of building
works: “I design the garden off
the house using complimentary
materials and colours,” she says.
“And I always pay great attention
to the boundaries.” Privacy is a
hallmark of her gardens, as is the
beautiful use of light – a long, slim
rill is lit underwater and brings a
magical golden light to a pale stone
garden, a row of slim fig trees,
pleached close to a wall, are uplit
for maximum glamour. But perhaps
the most glamorous of her gardens
are those with an outdoor fireplace.
A wood-burning hearth set high in
a tall free-standing wall makes a
dramatic centrepiece all year
round. Skillfully lit at night, it
looks like the focus of some ancient
tribal ceremony instead of an
early evening cocktail party in
Kensington & Chelsea.
Chic London gardens this year
are built along strict geometric
lines, and should have some,
preferably all, of the following:
pale cream limestone paving,
horizontal cedar trellis (which
fades to fashionable grey in a year or
so), square blocks of clipped box
punctuating the edges of the beds
and walls, slim standard trees set
in a row. Add a narrow rill of water
with a broad bronze or steel
spout trickling water gently on
10 sq m
The average size of back
gardens in the City of London
30 sq m
The average size of back gardens
in the City of Westminster and
Hammersmith & Fulham
30 sq m
The average size of back gardens
in Kensington & Chelsea
Sources: rbkc.gov.uk
londoncouncils.gov.uk
The London Magazine <#R#>
Horizontal
cedar trellis
Strict
geometric
lines
to its surface, with a flat wooden
or stone bridge or geometric
stepping stones over the rill.
Theatrical side wings can be made
from a square-clipped hornbeam
hedge on slim trunks and the clean
lines of the stone given a touch
of woodland informality with the
shaggy grass Hakonechloa macra to
soften its edges, with the garden
trellises clad in Trachelospermum
jasminoides – an evergreen climber
with white or cream scented
flowers. Multi-stemmed shrubs, of
Amelanchier lamarckii or Cornus kousa
look wonderful when lit, winter or
summer. But the shrub that no selfrespecting London garden should
ever be without is Hydrangea
arborescens Annabelle, whose huge
greenish-white blossoms manage
to look bucolic and blowsy, and
PHOTOGRAPHS: MARIANNE MAJERUS
LONDON’S
PRETTIEST STREETS
Agents nominate their favourite tree-lined roads
over Burton Court and
on to the Royal Hospital
Chelsea, and of course, its
handsome houses, make
it one of the prettiest
streets in Chelsea.”
Caroline Anderson,
Douglas & Gordon
“St Leonard’s Terrace
[SW3, above], with its
blossom trees, views
<#L#> The London Magazine
Oliver Lurot,
Savills Notting Hill
“One of the prettiest
streets in Notting Hill
is Dawson Place [W2],
in my opinion. It is a
Square blocks of
clipped box hedge
A narrow rill of
water gently
trickling down
achingly chic at the same time.
“What a winner,” says Marcus
Barnett, designer of the Telegraph
garden at this year’s Chelsea Flower
Show. “And it’s a shrub which dies
beautifully too,” he adds. The
blossoms turn a papery pale buff
in autumn and stay on the shrub
until torn off by winter winds.
All these are ingredients for
the low-maintenance gardens that
wonderfully wide street,
and it’s also lined with
cherry trees and lovely
low-built houses set
back from the road.”
Peter Rollings, Marsh & Parsons
“Magnificent white
stucco-fronted houses
make Palace Gardens
Terrace [W8, right] one
of the most sought-after
streets in Kensington,
especially in the spring
when the cherry trees
are breathtaking.”
Square-clipped
hornbeam hedge
on slim trunks
Pale cream
limestone paving
Londoners look for. “But I always
insist on adding some actual
planting too,” says Charlotte Rowe.
“Otherwise there would be no
seasonal interest.” A small bed in
one of her gardens with iris, tall
purple salvias, lavender and
astrantia, mixed in with evergreens,
is a charming example.
This kind of prettiness had no
appeal for the owner of the
feature
Shaggy grass
softens edges
2.5m
The total number of
trees in London’s
back gardens
Source: rbkc.gov.uk
Geometric stepping
stones over the rill
magnificent Holland Park garden
designed by del Buono Gazerwitz.
And they obliged with one of
the most magnificent evergreen
gardens London has ever seen.
“Many of our clients are happy to
experiment with proportions,” says
Tommaso del Buono. “There is a
great demand for pre-formed large
specimens of topiary, or mature
trees.” His partner Paul Gazerwitz
GEOMETRIC LINES From top left: A wooden plant cell-inspired structure designed by Marcus Barnett (far left)
for the RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2011; London style encapsulated in a Charlotte Rowe garden; the evergreen Holland
Park garden designed by Tommaso del Buono and Paul Gazerwitz (above, and far left)
adds: “We choose each specimen
ourselves from specialist nurseries
in Belgium or Germany and made
the garden around these mature
specimens. Trees and topiary this
size make an instant impact.”
And a garden like this could take
30 years to reach that level of
maturity. Even so, a garden will
often be the clincher for buyers.
Andy Buchanan of John D Wood’s
Chelsea office recalls showing
clients round Sir James Dyson’s
former house in Cheyne Row on a
series of boiling hot days. Here,
Buchanan says, garden designer Jim
Honey had made a long pool
of crystal clear water: “Water
spilled over a semi-circular slate
platform in a clean sheet, with
a very gentle trickle.” Buchanan
says the sound was almost
marcusbarnett.com
delbuono-gazerwitz.co.uk
honeygardens.co.uk
charlotterowe.com
Suburb [NW11], is
adjacent to the Heath
Extension. It is lined
with cherry blossom and
majestic trees.”
Anthony Bell, Kinleigh
Folkard & Hayward Fulham
“We currently have two
houses on the market on
Northumberland Place
[W2, right] and it’s the
prettiest street in Notting
Hill when in bloom.” Natasha Brar, Douglas and Gordon,
Notting Hill
Bob Crowley, Leslie Bective Marsh
“Albert Bridge Road
[SW11] runs by the side
of Battersea Park – 200
acres of glorious Victorian
Parkland housing over
4,000 trees, many of
unbearably enticing in the heat:
“A garden like that will make a
lovely house much more saleable. It
even drowned out the sound of the
planes!” That is a tall order, even
for the best garden designer. L
which date back to when
it was originally opened
in 1858.”
Mark Pollack, Aston Chase
“Wildwood Road, in
Hampstead Garden
“The imposing
properties on Pembridge
Square [W2] that
surround the central
gardens are breathtaking.
They embody the image
that many people have of
grand London houses.”
The London Magazine <#R#>
feature
ROUND AND ROUND THE DESIGNER GARDENS
Ellerton
road sw20
£6.95m
For dull days, this
six-bedroom detached
house in Wimbledon
has an indoor
swimming pool but for
fair weather, there is
a four-level garden by
landscape designer
Paul Luker, with an
outdoor office.
jackson-stops.co.uk
Campden
Hill Road W8
£13.5m
This Holland Park
development has
two houses, each
of which has a 12m
swimming pool and
gardens designed
by the awardwinning landscaper
Phillip Nixon.
johndwood.co.uk
SMith Street SW3
£8.95m
As well as five
bedrooms, a
basement cinema
room and 3,722
sq ft of space, this
Georgian townhouse
has an 85 ft
garden, with
a garden room.
struttandparker.com
KING’S ROAD sw3
£850 pw
The communal
gardens accessed by
this first floor flat were
designed by Fiona
Stephenson, who
won gold at the
RHS Chelsea Flower
Show in 2009.
marlerandmarler.co.uk