The Peckham Garden, SE London
A city garden of levels, belonging to a Grade II listed house, designed for a young London family of keen bird watchers and a love for entertaining.
Inspiration & Initial ideas
INSPIRATION
A garden that makes you forget you’re in London. An early 20th century artist enclave. A refuge in times of unrest in the world. Charleston. The Bloomsbury Group. A garden for the birds, wildlife, humans. Parties and solitude. Being in it and observing it.
INITIAL IDEAS
Apart from the mentioned painting ‘Port’, by Ellen Thesleff, there was also elements of inspiration from Japanese scroll gardens - the idea of a garden that you look at, where the views are framed. A sense of looking in and looking out.
Process
PROJECT BRIEF
A garden that makes you forget you’re in London. This was the wish of the clients, a young family with a love for entertaining, birdwatching and wildlife wanted a visually spectacular garden with water features, wildlife value, hosting possibilities and place for gardening.
The back garden had multiple level changes that needed to be adhered to. This led to the concept of multiple entertaining areas, as well as built in seating to be able to accommodate as many guests as possible, or simply have an easy spot to sit down and admire the garden.
RESPONSE TO SITE
The building itself boasts soft, curved shapes in its details; soft and strong at the same time, feminine. I was interested in this contrast between softness and strength, the fragile and the muscular, feeling drawn to explore the feminine aspect further. Ideas of Charleston in East Sussex came to mind, and the sense of an entertainer’s garden that had always been there. The painting ‘Port’ by early 20th century Finnish painter, Ellen Thesleff, became the inspiration for the design, with its sea harbour and vertical masts reflected in the harbour water.
