Horatio's Garden beneficiaries Pia and Miriam cast their thumbprints with Hugo Bugg from Harris Bugg Studio, designers of Horatio's Garden Chelsea © Horatio's Garden
L-R: Horatio’s Garden beneficiary, Pia, CEO of Project Giving Back, Hattie Ghaui, Horatio’s Garden beneficiary, Miriam, Founder & Chair of Trustees of Horatio’s Garden, Dr Olivia Chapple and Hugo Bugg from Harris Bugg Studio, designers of Horatio’s Garden Chelsea © Horatio’s Garden
The designers and collaborators involved in bringing a show garden for Horatio’s Garden to life have cast their thumbprint, along with beneficiaries and NHS staff at Horatio’s Garden London & South East in Stanmore. Part of a nationwide project, these will be displayed as part of a work of art for the charity’s show garden at RHS Chelsea Flower Show in May.
The thumbprints will be displayed as an artwork in a woodland room within Horatio’s Garden Chelsea, designed by Charlotte Harris and Hugo Bugg from Harris Bugg Studio in collaboration with architects Mcmullan Studio on the prestigious Main Avenue of the world-leading flower show.
Imprints were cast by Dr Olivia Chapple, Founder and Chair of Trustees of Horatio’s Garden, Hugo Bugg from Harris Bugg Studio, Andrew Mcmullan from Mcmullan Studio, Andrew Ewing from Studio Ewing and Hattie Ghaui, CEO of Project Giving Back which is generously supporting the gardens. These joined prints by patients current and past including Pia Gupta and Miriam Barker plus NHS staff. These follow the casting of the first thumbprint in the garden earlier in the month by the charity’s patron HRH Princess Eugenie of York.
L-R: Horatio’s Garden beneficiary, Pia, architect Andrew Mcmullan from Mcmullan Studio, NHS staff member at the London Spinal Cord Injury Centre, Sam, Horatio’s Garden beneficiary, Miriam, water engineer Andrew Ewing from Studio Ewing, Hugo Bugg from Harris Bugg Studio, designers of Horatio’s Garden Chelsea, and NHS staff member at the London Spinal Cord Injury Centre, Jacqui © Horatio’s Garden
These will join a thousand other clay thumbprints which are being collected across the UK from the broad community of Horatio’s Garden including patients, staff and volunteers within its gardens in spinal injury centres – as well as those involved in bringing the show garden to life.
Dr Olivia Chapple, Founder and Chair of Trustees of the charity said: “This is a wonderful initiative by designers Harris Bugg Studio in collaboration with architect Andrew Mcmullan that will tell the powerful story of the many hands involved in caring for beneficiaries of Horatio’s Garden.”
Charlotte Harris and Hugo Bugg, designers of Horatio’s Garden at Chelsea Flower Show, said: “We have been so fortunate in the last year to meet with many people supported by the Horatio’s Garden charity – we have listened to their stories and come to understand the vital role the charity plays within their lives. In approaching the design for the garden we were determined to visually represent the collective power of the whole Horatio’s Garden family – the many inspiring individuals that make up this transformative community of hope and support. And since this garden will be permanently located in Sheffield, the home of highly skilled metalworking, the idea of a personal way of hallmarking this space resonated yet further.”
Horatio’s Garden at RHS Chelsea Flower Show in May 2023 will be a place of sanctuary and hope, reflecting the special qualities of the charity’s gardens that nurture the wellbeing of people after spinal injury. Designed by Charlotte Harris and Hugo Bugg of Harris Bugg Studio, it will be an immersive, restorative haven – the antithesis of a busy, clinical hospital environment – that puts the requirements of people with mobility needs at its heart. The garden is generously funded by Project Giving Back.
Horatio’s Garden London & South East first opened in September 2020. Created by the eight-time RHS Chelsea Gold Medal winner and internationally acclaimed landscape architect Tom Stuart-Smith, the garden forms part of the London Spinal Cord Injury Centre (LSCIC) at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital in Stanmore.