Clapham

A Contemporary City Garden

The Design

This project involved the redesign of a compact Clapham garden, with the aim of creating a modern, plant-heavy space for entertaining and everyday use. The brief focused on balancing usable space while introducing a strong sense of privacy, and atmosphere.

The design centres around a sequence of staggered stepping-stone paving that draws you through the garden towards the primary entertaining terrace. This main space is surrounded by generous planting and anchored by a built-in fireplace which extends the garden’s use into the evening.

A restrained palette of hard materials is balanced with abundant planting to soften the space and bring a sense of immersion and calm to the space as well as increasing privacy.

Carefully positioned specimen multi-stems add to sense of enclosure and provide privacy

Large entertaining space with room for dining and relaxing

Staggered, oversized paving stones add rhythm and visual interest

Low level planting frames each stepping stone

Built in fireplace with concrete skim coat enhances the contemporary feel of the space

Freestanding sculptural wall, finished to match the fireplace, provides partial screening creating a sense of progression, allowing the garden to gradually reveal itself

Generous terrace directly off the house, providing a practical transition between indoor living spaces and the garden