GARDEN INSPIRATION
Contemporary and low maintenance, this chic urban garden in south London is the perfect space for relaxing and entertaining, and it’s all down to clever design and planting that ensure it looks its best in every season and at any time of day
Look out of your window at any gardens you can see right now. How many have someone in them and look like every little corner is loved? Now imagine it’s February and ask the same question. Not many gardens are busy and beautiful at all times of the year, but that certainly can’t be said of this stunning plot in Stockwell, south London. ‘You pay a lot of money for garden space, particularly in south-east England,’ says garden designer Emma O’Connell, ‘so I want to ensure that my clients and their friends are able to enjoy every square metre.’
This was very much the intention of owners Peter Lynn and Adrian Wright too, who’d bought the house largely because of its sizeable (5 x 23m) plot. Having remodelled it, Peter, a partner in Malin+Lynn architects, had designed a sleek, zinc-clad office-cum-guest-suite for the bottom of the garden, but needed help in working out how to get the most out of the long, narrow footprint. ‘We love entertaining,’ he says. ‘The garden is very much an extension of our living space, so we wanted somewhere we would really use, that was also contemporary, minimal and relatively low maintenance.’ Relishing the challenge, Emma achieved this by zoning the garden into three key sections. First, there is a large lounge area closest to the house, complete with a comfortable L-shaped sofa, a mini outdoor kitchen with a barbecue and fridge, and a striking 2 x 1m living wall, framed like a picture on the wall nearest the kitchen door. Four multi-stemmed amelanchiers and a spreading Parrotia persica provide height and seasonal colour and act as natural parasols to give some dappled shade when it’s needed.
Next, in the sunniest part of the garden, there’s a sunbathing area, with a bespoke folded metal lounger that Emma designed to pick up on the dark, masculine design elements of the house and garden room. Nestled under the branches of an olive tree next to the water feature and the edges of the raised beds – positioned so they are just the right height on which to rest a book or a glass of wine – it’s an immensely inviting spot on a sunny day.
Finally, across a sunken pond is the generous dining terrace, where a built-in bench and another bespoke piece of furniture – this time
