Why So special? Iconic C20 Landscapes - Burwood Place Water Gardens

FOLAR and The Gardens Trust are delighted to present a series of weekly online talks reviewing the 21 recently registered Historic England post war landscapes and gardens and their designers.

[To see details of this particular talk please scroll down beyond the listings]

The purpose of the series is to focus attention on the ideas, ingenuity and quality of each of these C20 designs. With a brilliant array of speakers including the original designers, academics, historians and researchers plus further insights from head gardeners, residents, site managers and users, we aim to reveal more detail about the design, the designer, how the landscape/garden works, how it has endured over the years, and what its future is like even with Historic England (HE) listing. We also want to discuss availability and access to drawings and papers related to the projects.

These landscapes and gardens range from private gardens to vast reclamation projects. Throughout the UK many C20 designed gardens and landscapes are at great risk from being unnoticed or under-valued, or they are maintained without any awareness of the original concept, such that sites get swept away, ‘improved’ or built over. We hope that this series of talks will help to change this.

The full series runs from 7 September 2021 to 29 March 2022, grouped by subject and with a week’s break between topics. [and nothing in December] All talks are on Tuesdays from 18.00-19.15.

This ticket is for this individual talk and costs £5, and you may purchase tickets for other individual talks via the links below, or you may purchase a ticket for this particular part of the series for £25.50 which focuses on Private Housing & Gardens and runs from 15 February to 29 March here.

Due to a recent Apple decision to charge a 30% fee for paid online events unfortunately you may no longer be able to purchase this ticket from the Eventbrite iOS app. Please use a web browser on desktop or mobile to purchase, or follow the link here.

FOLAR members can buy tickets for this topic at £18, other topics or for individual talks at the reduced prices. Please note that Landscape Institute members are not automatically members of FOLAR.

For a detailed description of each talk please click on the individual ticket for more information (which will be updated with information when available). FOLAR members can access their ticket prices at checkout.

To join FOLAR (Individual membership subscription - £20 per annum) go to www.folar.uk/support-us.

Attendees will be sent a Zoom link 2 days prior to the start of the talk, and again a few hours before the talk. A link to the recorded session (available for 1 week) will be sent shortly afterwards.

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New Town Parks

Week 1: 7 September. Harlow Town Park with David Allen and Alison Fox. Part of a series of 21 online lectures, £5 each.

Week 2: 14 September. Campbell Park Milton Keynes with Neil Higson and Brian Salter. Part of a series of 21 online lectures, £5 each.

Commercial Landscapes

Week 3: 28 September. Stockley Park with Bernard Ede and Claire Watson. Part of a series of 21 online lectures, £5 each.

Week 4: 5 October. Broadwater Park with Karen Fitzsimon. Part of a series of 21 online lectures, £5 each.

Week 5: 12 October. Cummins Engine Factory with Jane Amidon and Matthew Benians. Part of a series of 21 online lectures, £5 each.

Week 6: 19 October. Cadbury Factory with Ed Bennis and Rob Belcher. Part of a series of 21 online lectures, £5 each.

Public Housing

Week 7: 2 November. Alexandra Road Park with Neil Davidson. Part of a series of 21 online lectures, £5 each.

Week 8: 9 November. Brunel Estate with Colin Moore. Part of a series of 21 online lectures, £5 each.

Week 9: 16 November. Golden Lane Estate with Elain Harwood and Clem Cecil. Part of a series of 21 online lectures, £5 each.

Week 10: 23 November. Churchill Gardens with Dominic Cole and Jennifer White. Part of a series of 21 online lectures, £5 each.

Week 11: 30 November. Alton East and West with Elain Harwood. Part of a series of 21 online lectures, £5 each.

Semi-Public Gardens

Week 12: 11 January. Improvement Garden Stockwood Park with Kate Harwood. Part of a series of 21 online lectures, £5 each.

Week 13: 18 January. Roper’s Garden with Ed Bennis. Part of a series of 21 online lectures, £5 each.

Week 14: 25 January. Kennedy Memorial with Annabel Downs and Annie Thomas. Part of a series of 21 online lectures, £5 each.

Week 15: 1 February. St Catherine’s College with Tim Richardson. Part of a series of 21 online lectures, £5 each.

Private Housing

Week 16: 15 February. Fieldend with Jan Woudstra and James Strike. Part of a series of 21 online lectures, £5 each.

Week 17: 22 February. Burwood Place Water Gardens with Dominic Cole, Jan Woudstra and Cristina Refolo. Part of a series of 21 online lectures, £5 each.

Private Gardens

Week 18: 8 March. Beth Chatto’s Garden with David Ward and Chris Gibson. Part of a series of 21 online lectures, £5 each.

Week 19: 15 March. Denmans Garden with Barbara Simms and Gwendolyn van Paasschen. Part of a series of 21 online lectures, £5 each.

Week 20: 22 March. York Gate Garden with Ben Preston. Part of a series of 21 online lectures, £5 each.

Week 21: 29 March. Shute House with Kate Felus. Part of a series of 21 online lectures, £5 each.

Week 17. 22 Feb: An Unexpected Floating Water Garden off Edgware Road London: Burwood Place

When trying to understand the history of the tiny courtyard at the Sanderson Hotel we found out the planting had been designed by Philip Hicks and that another of his schemes was the water gardens in Edgware Road, so had to visit - it was a revelation to discover this remarkable landscape of levels, planes, water and delightful planting. The use of space, textures and light was amazing. Attempts to ‘update‘ paving and planting have begun to erode the simplicity and beauty of the original design.

Jan Woudstra shows that the Water Garden at Burwood Place was part of a movement that saw its roots in the 19th century re-imagination of the ‘Hanging Gardens of Babylon’. These iconic gardens were also a starting point as techniques improved, with the use of concrete and steel, for roof gardens. In the 20th century they were used as a reference to platform gardens, most famously in the raised decks of the architecture of futuristic cities. But what did these decks set out to do? What kinds of environments were envisaged? Burwood Place is but one of a whole series of responses. What was the intention here and what can we learn about life as it was supposed to be lived? What has happened since it was completed, with our perspective on how life is to be lived, and with this garden as a result? How can this garden be read today?

Cristina Refolo will provide an introduction to the restoration and rejuvenation of The Water Gardens, the design ethos, and the decisions made during the design process. Cristina will be talking about the rediscovery of the original relationship between the planters and the pond, and the intrinsic connection between the water and the concrete, which makes The Water Gardens a much more innovative and technologically advanced scheme than expected. In 2020 the restored scheme was presented with the Susdrain/Criria SuDS Small Scale Retrofit Award and The Landscape Institute Excellence in Horticulture and Planting Design Award.

.....Dominic Cole is a Landscape Architect and President of the Gardens Trust. He was the designer of the Eden Project, and now specialises in historic parks and gardens for which he has won many prestigious awards. Amongst other projects, he has worked with National Trust on Chartwell, Wimpole and Sheringham, the impact of HS2 on Bucks landscapes, management plans for Hampstead Heath and played a vital role in the restoration of Jellicoe’s water gardens at Hemel Hempstead. His recent investigations include the historical development of the Gardens at The Temple, and the original designs for the landscape of Churchill Gardens in Pimlico.

Jan Woudstra is a landscape architect and historian who has taught in the Department of Landscape Architecture at the University of Sheffield since 1995. His PhD at UCL explored the modernist landscape design and theory in five different countries, and concentrated particularly on the landscape associated with the home. He has published widely, not just concentrating on landscape modernism.

Cristina Refolo is a landscape architect and founding Director of Refolo Landscape Architects. She is appointed to the High Street Task Force for the stormwater management and biodiversity sector and regularly lectures on the subject of SuDS for the Landscape Architecture MA course at the University of Greenwich, London.

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Image: © Kate Harwood