Regent's Park

Winning competition entry for the Regent's Park Community Wildlife Garden

The brief for this competition set by the Royal Parks was to redesign a large but under-used area of the park leading off from York Bridge.

Currently used by a small group of volunteers to promote wildlife-friendly gardening, the Park wanted a much more ambitious vision to tie the area to the new Ironworks Education Centre, which will be developed over the next few years.

The design provides a welcome pavilion and facilities for workshops. The planting, which radiates out from the entrance, is in three parts, growing increasingly wilder as you walk through the space. 

"Strong ‘Ripple Effect’ concept beautifully presented and providing sound practical solutions. Impressive detail taking a realistic approach and deliverable outcome. Cracking visuals. "

Jean Yves Gilg


Illustration of planting in Pavilion Garden in the autumn, with a dry stone wall

The Pavilion Garden showcases typical garden plants that can be used to create planting that not only looks great in all seasons, but is rich in food and shelter for insects, birds and small mammals. The garden puts on a dramatic show in autumn whilst evergreen ground cover works with grasses and seed heads to create sculptural textures in winter. 

Illustration of the Pavilion and workshop area in the Regent's Park Community Wildlife Garden

The workshop area features raised beds constructed from gabion cages filled with demolition waste, from an existing structure on site. The timber-framed shelter with shingle roof welcomes visitors arriving from the park entrance.

Illustration showing a man wandering along a path through woodland edge and meadow planting in the Regent's Park Community Wildlife Garden

The second area features woodland planting designed as a random matrix, rich in native species. The third area, in a sunny clearing, is a perennial wildflower meadow. 

Curving across the site and cut through with paths are a log pile, a dry stone wall, a 'Devon bank' and a native 'laid' hedge. These boundaries, intersected by paths to emulate a walk through fields, create shelter, enclosure and important wildlife 'corridors'.

A new belt of native trees and shrubs will be added to the south of the site, under-planted with swathes of spring flowering bulbs allowed to naturalise in biannually-mown grass.