30 unreal photos of London garden design in the dead season

Winter is a fresh season.  Everything is stripped back, cleansed and reset for the coming year. It’s a time when bold architecture comes to the fore, as the below 30 photos gathered on mine and Chris’ travels around London this winter testify.

1) Modern sculpture, symmetry and a sea of box topiary in the middle of a road in Canary Wharf

2) Industrial framing like a modern day cave in Wandsworth Town

3) Designer hard landscaping in Vauxhall’s Pleasure Gardens

4) Dead plants left to stand through winter at the Barbican

5) Repetition of industrial planters on the side of the Thames in Vauxhall

6) Formal street planting in a shady bed near Battersea Power Station’s redevelopment

7) When outside and inside are the same thing in a cafe in Clapham Old Town

8) Regent’s Park proving outside is usually the best place for a sculpture

9) Lighting and fog bringing a new depth to a park in Winter at Christmas time in Chiswick

10) Stunning landscape design and architecture complementing equally well thought out planting in Cross Rail’s new roof garden

11) Gritty city as a backdrop to dreamy planting in Kennington Park’s community garden

12) Tree avenue creating a remarkable line of sight toward Buckingham Palace

13) Clumping Mahonia creating a big statement on a pavement

14) Out of season Autumnal leaves on recently pollarded Tilia

15) Boldly painted sculpture in the Regent’s Park outdoor exhibition

16) Huge tree skeletons in Mordon Park (spot me bottom left)

17) Mossy balls are all the rage

18) Low winter sunlight through bamboo hedging

19) An indoor pool filled with cut flower heads and candles on the King’s Road

20) Plants and art at the Saatchi Gallery

21) Plants are the art at the Design Museum

22) Art or just plants at the RHS Urban show?

23) Ginko biloba’s standout yellow on the cusp of winter

24) Bright and early at the New Covent Garden Market

25) Simple frosted things in Battersea Park

26) Infinity benches at Battersea Park

27) Immaculate hedging in Clapham

28) Who said formal bedding was dead when we have Regent’s Park’s contemporary winter bedding using modern cultivars

29) Petersham Nurseries show us all how to do an indoor forced bulb display

30) Again in Richmond, Petersham’s container plantings are something to aim for in 2017

4 thoughts on “30 unreal photos of London garden design in the dead season

  1. Really interesting. It helps you are both good photographers but you you show huge range of inspiring ideas. I never liked Mahonias but the planting of them on a pavement (No. 13) is gorgeous.

    1. Thanks Lucy – I’m the same as you, my whole opinion of Mahonias was turned on its head by that large clump 🙂

  2. no. 3 love the hard landscaping it looks like a baked river bed where clay dries out a sophisticated alternative to crazy paving .

    no.4 I presume they mean dead seed heads as cant see any dead plants.

    love the different size box balls and agree about the Mahonia

    some nice images

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