Despite its diminutive half-acre size, the urban garden at 28 Fishpool Street in St Albans weaves together bold planting and dramatic topiary with a sense of humour that make it so much more than the sum of its parts
WORDS NIC WILSON PHOTOGRAPHS ANNA OMIOTEK-TOTT
Tucked away in the historic heart of St Albans, close to the cathedral and the River Ver, lies an oasis of serenity. 28 Fishpool Street, located on one of the original Saxon roads leading though the city, was once surrounded by five acres of land including market gardens and orchards. Now owned by retired accountants, Jenny and Antony Jay, the 16th-century house has only half an acre to the rear, yet this is a sizeable garden compared to many in the area.
The couple fell in love with the garden on their first viewing nearly 20 years ago. Though the planting was tired, the space was already divided into rooms defined by undulating box hedges, and Jenny immediately felt at home in this lovely calming space. “You’re in the city centre,” she explains, “but it’s just so peaceful and relaxing.” With its 80-year-old box hedges, immaculate topiary and cottage garden planting surrounding a 17th-century Grade II listed Tripe House, this is certainly a picturesque spot that spirits you away from the hustle and bustle of modern life.
Jenny and Antony designed the garden with the history of the area in mind. “We tried to keep as much of what was here originally and expanded on it,” Antony says. Flints and cornerstones unearthed in the garden were reused in walls and paths, while roses, alstroemeria, heucheras and peonies were rejuvenated or replanted. They kept the Rosa gallica ‘Versicolor’ so they could enjoy its fleeting pink and white semi-double blooms, and the begonias from the old borders are still thriving beneath the flowering cherry.
This isn’t a garden that’s stuck in the past. Jenny prefers curves to straight lines, so square lawns were softened into circles and once-direct paths now meander through the planting, making the space feel bigger than it is. And although Jenny has opted for a cottage garden colour palette with pale pinks, blues and white in much of the garden, she enjoys experimenting in the hot herbaceous border with vivid perennials and annuals including Crocosmia ‘Lucifer’, Helenium ‘Waltraut’, Tithonia rotundifolia ‘Torch’, Geranium ‘Patricia’, Cosmos bipinnatus ‘Dazzler’ and Fritillaria imperialis ‘Orange Beauty’. As the sun illuminates this northwest-facing border on summer evenings, the glowing clay roof tiles of the surrounding house
