Exciting new garden at Dulwich Picture Gallery
These days a visit to Sir John Soane’s great masterpiece, the Dulwich Picture Gallery, starts the moment one steps into the garden. (The original entrance has recently been reinstated.)
The day I visited it was brimming with people, including a steady stream of young children frolicking over the many interactive sculptures that are dotted around, as well as enjoying Kim Wilkie’s new land art, Lovington Sculpture Meadow. There is also a fabulous new ArtPlay Pavilion designed by architects, Carmody Groarke, recently opened by The Queen. A handsome building constructed with Douglas fir sourced from Wiltshire and the Southwest, its clean lines blend harmoniously into the garden. It is ‘a haven of fun,’ says Jennifer Scott, the Director of the gallery.
An aerial view of Kim Wilkie’s new Lovington Sculpture Meadow at Dulwich Picture Gallery
Kim Wilkie has worked his characteristic magic on what was a neglected dreary field, transforming it into a sinuous circular series of grassy mounds in an amphitheatre-like design. The design was inspired by the gold chain worn by the girl in the gallery’s most famous painting, the Girl in the Window by Rembrandt. ‘It is such a tiny detail. How on earth was he inspired?’ muses Jack Towson, the gardener. ‘Children love rolling down it and running all over it.’ Jack’s long-term vision is to let the grass get quite shaggy and then cut only the creases, thus maintaining the art form but also encouraging the wildflowers. Adjacent to it is an ‘art forest’ of a hundred and thirty sorbus torminalis trees enhancing the biodiversity. There are also new paths and seating throughout the garden.
Jack is the first gardener to be employed by the gallery and is funded for the next three years by the Heritage Lottery Fund. ‘I want to develop the planting around the new spaces cramming in lots of plants linking up the architecture, the gardens and the paintings’. The aim is to encourage visitors to engage with the museum’s collection in a different way.
In Lockdown people flocked to the garden, a trend which shows no sign of abating.
The recently opened ArtPlay Pavilion designed by Carmody Groarke is already proving to be extremely popular
The new play space is a stroke of genius. The inside area offers sensory led immersive play activities inspired by paintings in the collection designed by Sarah Marsh and Stephanie Jefferies of HoLD Collective. Suitable for babies from six months to eight years old, sessions are free or low-cost for local schools and families on Universal Credit. It is available to rent for parties on Sundays, which is an important source of commercial income. Not surprisingly it is already booked for weeks ahead. Next door is an outdoor slide designed by Harold Offeh in jolly bright colours.
The Queen in front of Harold Offeh’s whimiscal slide
Carmody Groarke also re-imagined a historic gallery cottage as the new Canteen which means that there is now shelter for schoolchildren to eat their lunch. ‘We have tripled the numbers of school trips,’ says Marcel Bruneau, Head of Development.
Interestingly Soane’s original plans included a formal garden. One wonders if he realised that his architecture can seem austere? ‘People sometimes say the gallery looks like a prison,’ says Jack. He is planning to create some big borders that will sweep around the front of the gallery, softening the approach.
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He is not keen on plant-labelling as it ‘can feel oppressive and takes away the romance.’ He will probably opt for QR signage with a planting map. The garden does have some fine trees including a two-hundred-year-old mulberry tree and a fine tulip tree.
Jack has plans to develop the borders along College Road. At the moment they have very ‘naff shrubs that haven’t had any love for a long time’. Fortunately, he has a great team of volunteers to help. ‘They have a very broad range of experience, some are already working in horticulture, others are coming to learn or to get outside, one lady lives in a flat without a garden.’
A Dulwich Picture Gallery Garden Supporters club has just been started. ‘We believe it will be giving them ownership of the garden and make them more invested in Jack. He will be writing a monthly email to members of the supporters’ club with horticultural tips,’ says Marcel.
In a push to green up the garden, Jack has ingeniously made new compost bays with the rubble left by the builders. ‘I want to try and keep everything on site. Already the wildlife has increased by 65%.’ Needless to say, urban foxes are a problem.
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Like so many gardeners, Jack first became entranced by gardening when aged 13 he started mowing his grandfather’s lawn. Soon he was mowing for lots of people. On leaving school at sixteen he was apprenticed to a landscape company in Kent working on a variety of projects from big agricultural projects to little back gardens. ‘I learned so much’. Next, he ran his own company for a few years before going to work at Knole. ‘My time at Knole really taught me to look. You are in one garden for four years and you have to focus.’
I defy anyone not to be excited by all the new additions and improvements at Dulwich. It is a veritable triumph.
