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Urban garden with fireplace
 
This small town garden has more of the feel of Santa Fe or Mexico than London; but in reality, it is located in central London where the temperatures stay closer to 10 degrees than 30 degrees for most of the year.

Therefore we decided to make the space as usable as possible throughout the year by building an external fireplace and making sure the garden lighting was dramatic and atmospheric

We wanted to create a simple uncluttered space which had good bone structure and strong bold lines - set off by soft lush planting. The fireplace is the centre piece and can be seen from most rooms in the house.

The fireplace is used to play down the dominance of the end wall, (which is more than 4m high) and as a consequence, the whole garden pivots on this feature.  It is constructed of lime-washed and rendered concrete block with heat resistant fire bricks on the interior of the chimney and a handmade iron grate to take the logs. It is used regularly not just in the summer when people are in the garden but also in the winter –as a focal point from the dining room of the house. 

"More Santa Fe or Mexico than London."
 
 
 
         
     
The fire acts as a focus for the whole garden 
                                             

On either side of the fireplace are raised planting beds, seats and benches in block work and timber which have specially made cushions and mattresses for use in the summer. 

On one side of the garden is a low rendered wall with bespoke horizontal slatted trellis made of Western Red Cedar; on the other side of the garden is a tall boundary wall with a of tensile stainless steel yachting wire fence on top. 

Supporting this wall are two large buttresses constructed of reinforced concrete block work, rendered and lime-washed like the rest of the garden which also act as a visual element of the garden and are used for displaying storm lanterns and candles at night.
Fitted cupboards run down the side return
 
"The smell of wood smoke around the garden and surrounding area is wonderful."
 
 
Planting plan    A computer generated image
     
 

The paving consists of large slabs of cream coloured honed limestone from Portugal laid in a grid pattern, complemented by a narrow timber decked strip of Western Red Cedar, complementing the trellis work.  This kind of paving is not suitable for high frost areas but if regularly maintained and cleaned (it is just like mopping a bathroom floor) they look really good in urban gardens such as this one.

Down the side of the dining room extension of the house there is a passageway leading to one of the two sets of doors into the house.  Here there is a long timber storage cupboard and shelf with a limestone top topped by a decorative back-lit trellis.
 
 
 
 

The dramatic lighting is a key feature of this garden – Charlotte Rowe’s gardens always have discreet but powerful lighting.  Town gardens in particular need this as more often than not, they are seen by their owners from the inside of the house, at night and in mid winter when the garden is a no-go-area.

There is a number of adjustable spike spots uplighting plants, in particular the espaliered fig trees and the pear trees. There are also LED uplighting embedded into the top of the buttresses and rope lighting under the timber bench and around the fireplace.

 

Very tall fibre glass planters containing low clipped Buxus are placed outside the two tall windows of this extension and these are down lit by wall mounted halogen spots.

Tall grasses in two planting beds divide the space in two, creating an illusion of additional space.  There are three pleached ornamental pear trees placed against the end wall beside the fireplace and espaliered fig trees against the South Western facing wall.  Other planting includes small shrubs, perennials and seasonal bulbs such as Allium in a palette of lime green, deep purple and bright pink.


"Styling the garden with throws, pads, cushions, lamps and night lights adds to the magic."
 
All photos on this page copyright Clive Nichols    
     
 
 
 

 
118 BLYTHE ROAD D
BROOK GREEN
 D
LONDON
D
W14 0HD
D
TEL: +44 (0)20 7602 0660 D D  

Photography: Clive Nichols, Marianne Majerus, Rob Brown, Marcus Harpur, Steve Gorton, Light IQ, John Cullen Lighting, Robert Pascall and Charlotte Rowe
Website designed by Montpellier Creative


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