Bath landscape architecture practice Grant Associates has revealed it is to create a special ‘Queen’s Garden’ at the Tower of London as part of its Superbloom display to celebrate Her Majesty’s Platinum Jubilee.
Superbloom, which has been masterminded by the firm, will transform the Tower’s moat into a vibrant sea of more than 20m flowers to help mark the Jubilee in early June.
Grant Associates was chosen for the project by Historic Royal Palaces, the independent charity that manages the Tower of London, due to its wide experience of producing stunning architectural schemes across the globe for the past 21 years.
Now, to coincide with the Queen’s 96th birthday yesterday, the firm has confirmed it will also create a special garden, pictured, that draws on the colours, shapes and motifs employed by famed British couturier Sir Norman Hartnell for The Queen’s 1953 coronation gown.
Under the concept developed by Grant Associates founder Andrew Grant and senior associate James Clarke, a lawned area known as the Tower’s Bowling Green will be transformed into an elegant garden featuring a combination of meadow flowers, topiary and summer-flowering perennials, bulbs and ornamental grasses.
The space’s layout – with its concentric scalloped hedging – is intended to evoke the scalloped tiers of embroidery which feature on the gown’s silk skirt.
Superbloom horticulturalist Nigel Dunnett has selected a delicate semi-formal structure of shrubs such as lavender, santolina and brachyglottis greyi to frame a sparkling mix of summer flowers, hinting at the gold bugle beads, pearls and diamante which dazzled viewers around the world on coronation day.
Rising from the garden will be 12 cast glass forms representing the national emblems featured in Hartnell’s embroidered design, including the thistle of Scotland, the Australian wattle and Canadian maple leaf.
In the centre of these motifs will sit a glass crown, a reminder of the Tower of London’s ancient role as home of the Crown Jewels, the sacred regalia used in Her Majesty’s coronation, and those of previous British monarchs going back centuries.
Specially created for the Queen’s Garden by glass artist Max Jacquard, these hand-crafted artworks will catch the light and provide a visual spectacle.
Andrew Grant, pictured, said: “Our challenge was to create a garden that linked the Queen’s coronation to the flowers of Superbloom. Sir Norman Hartnell’s coronation gown seemed a perfect reference and one with flowers at the heart of the story.
“The design of the gown suggested a geometry and basic colour scheme for the garden whilst the embroidered flowers, representing multiple nations, offered a sense of the richness and diversity of Superbloom.
“By representing these flowers through glass art we wanted to express the exquisite craftsmanship of the original dress and bring some of that sparkle into the garden experience.
“This is a relatively small garden within the overwhelming scale of Superbloom but we hope it provides an intimate perspective to the event, bringing focus to the underlying celebration of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee.”
Historic Royal Palaces creative producer Eva Koch-Schulte added: “The Queen’s Garden is a really integral part of our plans to mark the Platinum Jubilee at the Tower of London this summer, and it seemed only fitting to share news of this tribute from us at Historic Royal Palaces on Her Majesty’s birthday.
“In its inspiration, the garden references the Tower’s ancient association with coronations, while drawing on the best of contemporary horticultural design and British craftsmanship in its creation.”
The garden, designed to be viewed from the outside – in the spirit of other picture gardens cared for by Historic Royal Palaces at Hampton Court Palace and Kensington Palace – will be in bloom ready for the Jubilee Weekend and will remain in situ until the end of September.
Grant Associates, which also has an office in Singapore – where it helped create the city-state’s spectacular Gardens by the Bay – has also worked on major projects in the Far East, Australia and the UK, including supporting Bath’s Forest of Imagination community arts event. It also won the Best Show Garden at last year’s Chelsea Flower Show.
