Six-time RHS Chelsea Gold medallist Robert Myers returns with ‘Imagine the World to be Different’, a depiction of the restored garden planned for St James’s Piccadilly church in London. The Wren Project involves wider restoration to the 17th-century, Christopher Wren-designed church, as well as opening up entrances to the precinct and creating new opportunities. “It’s about making the whole church and garden more inclusive and accessible, creating more biodiversity and making connections between the church and surrounding spaces,” says Robert, who has been working with architects Ptolemy Dean at St James’s for years.
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The garden references that project but also highlights the church’s history and connections to free thinkers such as Wren, and its current outreach work and activities around social and environmental justice. An archway faced in reclaimed brick and backed by strocks – blocks of unfired clay-rich earth and straw, which are then lime rendered – draws visitors into the garden, lush with semi-shaded planting, shrubs, climbers, a water feature and an urn from the churchyard itself.
Moving further up, you reach more woodland-style planting – St James’s churchyard is shadowed by huge London plane trees – where you’ll find a characterful wooden cabin. Designed to replace St James’s Drop-in and Counselling Service caravan, this cabin offers a destination of hope and wellbeing in the garden. “I got excited by the idea of pocket parks – richly planted, important, regenerative and restorative green spaces that can offer a new sort of identity – that’s really relevant to our narrative here,” says Robert.
5 key elements
1. Counselling cabin Designed by installation artist Ivan Morison (peakmorison.org) as an enclosed, safe space, it’s made of oak and chestnut for a sense of warmth and softness and will be relocated to St James’s after the show.
2. Wall plaques and engraved stones will bring to light some of the key historic free thinkers associated with St James’s including poet William Blake, abolitionist Quobna Ottobah Cugoano, and botanical artist Mary Delany.
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3. Resilient trees were chosen to withstand the harsh urban environment as well as taking climate resilience into account, including Ginkgo biloba, Koelreuteria paniculata and Trachycarpus fortunei.
4. Church window The large, arched window in the garden’s boundary wall echoes the distinctive windows of Christopher Wren’s 1684 church.
5. Plant-covered walls including the unusual climber Stauntonia latifolia, the sausage vine, with its glossy, evergreen leaves, clusters of flowers and sausage-like fruits, perfectly suited to the sheltered location of the churchyard.
Designer Robert Myers St James's Piccadilly: Imagine the World to be Different . Sponsor Project Giving Back for St James’s Piccadilly. Theme An urban pocket park with characterful woodland-style planting that enhances the space around a central London church. Contractor Stewart Landscape Construction. Plants Hortus Loci and Deepdale Trees. After the show Many of the materials and plants will go to St James’s Piccadilly, with other plants going to partner church St Pancras Church on London’s Euston Road. Contact robertmyers-associates.co.uk
