The award-winning Tate Britain garden at the Chelsea flower show has demonstrated how urban spaces can be transformed by bringing art and nature together. Designed by landscape architect Tom Stuart-Smith, the RHS gold-award-winning garden is a microcosm of a major redesign for the gallery's Millbank garden, set to open next spring.
A Hidden Gem Transformed
Visitors to Tate Britain may often overlook the fact that the 1897 gallery has a garden at all. The imposing steps and portico overshadow two rectangles of lawn. However, this unloved patch is being transformed into a horticultural haven. The gallery, which has struggled to recover visitor numbers since the pandemic, could greatly benefit from this boost.
Inspiration from Art
The new garden design was partly inspired by Victor Pasmore's painting The Green Earth (1979-80). The planting is more exotic than one might expect for the home of British art, featuring magnolias, sago palms, a chinaberry tree, a pineapple guava, a pomegranate, and a fig tree. This arboreal abundance acknowledges London's increasingly Mediterranean climate and demonstrates a commitment to biodiversity.
Other Notable Gardens
Fig and pomegranate trees can also be found in the South Kensington gardens of the Natural History Museum, which reopened in 2024 after a £25 million five-year revamp. With over 5 million visitors in its first year, it showed the potential of rejuvenating London's green spaces. Its once underused lawns are now an exciting extension of the museum, where schoolchildren can discover wildlife from tadpoles to dinosaur skeletons.
Art is occupying outdoor spaces elsewhere in the capital this summer. Colombian artist Delcy Morelos has filled the concrete Sculpture Court of the Barbican with 30 tonnes of soil to create her mammoth ovular mud installation Origo. The world's largest outdoor exhibition of Henry Moore's sculptures opened this month at Kew Gardens.
Art, Architecture, and Nature United
Venues including Compton Verney in Warwickshire, Yorkshire Sculpture Park, and Hepworth Wakefield (with new gardens designed by Stuart-Smith in 2023) successfully bring art, architecture, and nature together. As Hepworth said, "I prefer my work to be shown outside. I think sculpture grows in the open light and with the movement of the sun its aspect is always changing."
Historical and Contemporary Significance
Sculpture has been part of garden design since antiquity, and artists have long been inspired by their own plots. Monet said of Giverny, "My garden is my most beautiful masterpiece." These new projects speak to our times, addressing the climate emergency, biodiversity loss, and the need for human connection with nature. Expensive makeovers like the Clore Garden at Tate Britain or the Natural History Museum would not be possible without hefty charitable donations, but access to both is free. This is vital in a city where a private garden is an unaffordable luxury for many.
At a time when the UK's cultural institutions urgently need infrastructure repairs, it is important to remember that they are not just bricks and mortar. Galleries and museums can be intimidating places, but soulless urban spaces can be transformed into welcoming attractions, encouraging more visitors. Gardens, like galleries, offer beauty and tranquillity in a troubled world. This grafting of art and horticulture should be encouraged to flourish.
