Ground was broken this week at RHS Chelsea Flower Show on St James’s Piccadilly’s ‘Imagine the World to be Different’ show garden, sponsored by grant-making charity Project Giving Back and designed by award-winning landscape architect Robert Myers. The garden evokes St James’s churchyard garden and highlights the importance of public green spaces in the city for healing and biodiversity. The garden is inspired by St James’s inclusive ethos, the character and form of the existing gardens, bombed in World War Two, but surviving and evolving into a biodiverse, eclectic haven for people and nature. The show garden also features a unique timber structure designed by Ivan Morison to replace the existing hut which houses the counselling service providing 5,000 hours of free counselling a year. ‘Imagine the World to be Different’, reflects the garden that will be created at St James’s as part of the Wren Project. The church is fundraising for the £20 million project that will restore the church, courtyard and garden.
A diverse range of trees and shrubs has been selected for longer term climate resilience as well as visual interest, creating dappled shade, with rich textural planting of shrubs, ferns and perennials. Climate resilient choices include Gingko biloba, Koelreuteria paniculata and Trachycarpus fortunei and self-seeding ‘weeds’, based on plants found in the churchyard after the bombing in 1940.
The construction of the garden stands out as environmentally innovative due to its holistic approach to sustainability across all aspects of the design. From carbon-conscious construction practices to the prioritisation of biodiversity, climate resilience and circularity, the garden exemplifies a commitment to environmental stewardship and social responsibility that is championed by St James’s Piccadilly.
Ivan Morison has designed a new structure to replace the existing hut where the Caravan – Drop in and Counselling Service have offered around 5,000 hours of free counselling every year since 1982. The flower show prototype has a similar form and quality of interior space, using the same oak frame and chestnut lathes, but is not a finished, weatherproof building. Inside the cabin, a table crafted from the magnificent Catalpa tree that stood in the gardens for over 90 years, surviving the Blitz, takes pride of place.
The church’s commitment to finding space for mental wellbeing is part of its wider social justice mission, offering welcome and reaching out to people experiencing homelessness, living on low incomes or going through the process of claiming asylum. St James’s is actively engaged in issues of equality, equity, social justice and environmental work. The church’s community is committed to making the world a better place. The RHS Chelsea garden will support efforts to raise £20m for The Wren Project, a scheme to rejuvenate the historic, Wren-designed church and particularly to restore its garden, in order to accommodate and amplify St James’s extensive social outreach and environmental work. Donations can be made at https://www.sjp.org.uk/chelsea-campaign/
The ‘Imagine the World to be Different’ garden will be re-sited in two phases. All the trees and plants will move to St Pancras Church on Euston Road, which is a partner to St James’s. All of the hard landscape elements and timber cabin will be stored and reused as part of The Wren Project at St James’s.
Stephen Fry, Friend of St James’s, said:
‘What is needed in Piccadilly is a proper place to sit and reflect and take yourself out of the bustle. The garden at St James’s Piccadilly is not just a green space, it’s an active part of the community, as the rest of St James’s Church is.”
