We are thrilled to announce our first Show Garden at the world-renowned RHS Chelsea Flower Show in 2023, generously funded by Project Giving Back. Charlotte Harris and Hugo Bugg of award-winning landscape designers Harris Bugg Studio will create our prestigious Main Avenue garden, designed with the requirements of people with mobility needs at its heart.
Visual of the garden design for Horatio’s Garden at RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2023 by Morag Curtis, a beneficiary of Horatio’s Garden South West
Horatio’s Garden at RHS Chelsea will form the nucleus of our eighth Horatio’s Garden, also designed by Harris Bugg Studio, opening at the Princess Royal Spinal Injuries Centre in Sheffield in 2024. As the second largest spinal centre in the UK, it serves a considerable geographical area from the West Midlands to East Anglia. When completed, Horatio’s Garden Sheffield will support over 360 in-patients per year, their families and friends, thousands of outpatients, as well as the 250 NHS staff looking after them.
The Princess Royal Spinal Injuries Centre at Northern General Hospital in Sheffield, the site of the charity’s eighth project, Horatio’s Garden Sheffield, being designed by Harris Bugg Studio © NHS Sheffield Teaching Hospitals
Horatio’s Garden at RHS Chelsea will be a beautiful, immersive, restorative haven – the antithesis of a busy, clinical hospital environment. It is designed to give visitors to the RHS Chelsea Flower Show a sense of the hope and transformative effect having access to a Horatio’s Garden can have when coming to terms with a devastating and traumatic spinal injury.
Patient pictured in Horatio’s Garden South West at The Duke of Cornwall Spinal Treatment Centre in Salisbury, designed by Cleve West © Horatio’s Garden
Harris Bugg Studio will integrate defining qualities of existing Horatio’s Gardens while incorporating influences from the Sheffield region; spirit of place being key to their design approach. The garden will include tactile stone cairns symbolic of wayfinding; sensory features including colour, scent, sound and tactile experiences; multi-dimensional planting and a discreet garden pod structure in collaboration with architects Mcmullan Studio, providing a cocooning place for physical and emotional shelter. Every item from the garden will be re-used and relocated to form the heart of Horatio’s Garden Sheffield as its enduring legacy.
Charlotte Harris and Hugo Bugg pictured chatting with a patient during a visit to The Princess Royal Spinal Injuries Centre in Sheffield © Horatio’s Garden
In approaching the design, Charlotte Harris and Hugo Bugg have collaborated closely with the whole Horatio’s Garden community. They have met and listened to patients, their loved ones, NHS staff, Head Gardeners and volunteers to understand the needs and aspirations of everyone benefiting from time spent in a Horatio’s Garden. Understanding that patients are often in beds for many months and that most in-patients will be learning to use a wheelchair for the very first time, their garden puts accessibility at the very centre of its design.
Dr Olivia Chapple pictured in Horatio’s Garden Wales, designed by Sarah Price © Lucy Shergold
Olivia Chapple, Founder and Chair of Trustees at Horatio’s Garden, said: “We are thrilled to be collaborating with Harris Bugg Studio to bring Horatio’s Garden to the world-renowned RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2023. We are so grateful to Project Giving Back for this special opportunity as a charity to create a Main Avenue Garden, where Charlotte Harris and Hugo Bugg’s thoughtful design will enable us to share the important message that great design really can benefit the lives of everyone. This garden will have such a valuable legacy in then forming the nucleus of our eighth Horatio’s Garden in Sheffield in 2024, where we know it will transform the lives of thousands of people.”
Hugo Bugg and Charlotte Harris of Harris Bugg Studio, who are designing Horatio’s Garden at RHS Chelsea 2023 and Horatio’s Garden Sheffield opening 2024 © Allan Pollok-Morris
Charlotte Harris of Harris Bugg Studio said: “The mission of Horatio’s Garden really spoke to us – gardens as restorative, life-changing havens being the core purpose of the charity’s work. As designers, we believe everyone has the right to experience the benefits of nature and green space. Our design is about showing how meaningful, high-quality design can improve the lives of everyone in society and we want to show that functional and practical spaces do not need to compromise in terms of their beauty and aesthetics.”
Hugo Bugg of Harris Bugg Studio said: “Our driving force at Harris Bugg studio is connecting people with nature, and from the outset we felt strongly that we wanted this process of designing for Horatio’s Garden to be collaborative – our role was to listen to everyone in the Horatio’s Garden family. Those voices and needs are reflected in our Chelsea show garden and have helped us to create a place where people feel safe, nurtured and restored by all the benefits of being in nature.”
Project Giving Back (PGB) is a unique grant-making charity that provides funding for gardens for good causes at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show. PGB was launched in May 2021 in response to the Covid-19 pandemic and its devastating effect on UK charitable fundraising. It will fund gardens inspired by a range of good causes at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show in 2022, 2023 and 2024.
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Find out more about Horatio’s Garden Sheffield, how to donate and view our fundraising film here.
