Garden · South East London

Hillmore Grove

A small South East London garden turned into a semi-formal cottage rose garden: a herringbone brick terrace for evenings with friends, framed by roses, box and scented perennials.

Location: South East London
Role: Design, build, planting and aftercare
Completed: 2022

A herringbone brick path running between roses, cosmos and clipped box to the back of a small garden at dusk, under festoon lights.

The brief

This South East London garden was small, but the owners wanted it to feel like an extension of the house: a step from the back door straight into a beautiful country cottage garden. They love entertaining small groups well into the evening, and roses mattered enormously to them, so the idea of squeezing a semi-formal rose garden into the space was at the heart of the brief.

The design

Inside, the house has wooden herringbone flooring throughout, so I carried the pattern out into the garden in brick, linking the two and making the terrace feel like another room.

Beyond the herringbone terrace, the garden is divided into four symmetrical zones. The first two are filled with standard roses and hybrid tea roses, contained by formal box edging. Further out, the formality gives way to Cotswold stone gravel and perennial beds planned to perform through every season.

The result

The result is a garden full of perfume, pollinators and colour: a true cottage garden amid the hustle and bustle of South East London.

The garden at night lit by festoon lights, with a round table, raised planters and the brick path glowing beyond. — Under the festoon lights at night

Grey raised planters of roses and cosmos beside a round timber table on a herringbone brick terrace. — Planters beside the seating

A border of alliums, white astrantia and acid-green euphorbia against a timber fence, edged in brick beside pale gravel. — The border against the fence

Someone enjoying supper at the garden table at sunset, looking out over roses, cosmos and the brick path under festoon lights. — Supper in the garden at sunset

Window boxes overflowing with pink scabious, lavender-blue flowers and small white daisies beneath a shuttered window. — Window boxes of scabious

Purple allium heads, white flowers and bright euphorbia in a brick-edged border. — Alliums and euphorbia in early summer

Looking down on purple alliums, white flowers and a pale foxglove in a densely planted border. — Alliums and foxgloves

Next projectMonmouth House

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