London's Brutalist landmark unveils its secret garden, accessible round-the-clock, serving as a thriving model for public horticulture ventures.
Revamped Beech Gardens at the Barbican Estate: A Decade of Sustainable Experimentation
Ten years on, the Beech Gardens and High Walk areas at the iconic Barbican Estate in London are a real-life example of sustainable and climate-adapted planting. I've long believed that applying ecological ideas to garden design can be downright transformative, not just in appearance, but also in usage, feel, and care.
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The changes are indeed exciting, as well as challenging, and this holds true at the Barbican. The estate, a prominent example of Brutalist architecture, was primarily built in the 1970s and is both Europe's largest arts center and a residential area with 4,000 residents.
Initially, its landscape exemplified Modernist minimalism, featuring empty plazas and trees in planter boxes arranged in a grid. However, this style proved to be rather dull, leading to the creation of a more human-scale and organic garden and planting scheme designed in the 1980s by landscape architect Janet Jack.
These public roof gardens, sprawling over the top of underground rooms, galleries, car parks, or roads, have necessitated renovation due to deteriorated waterproofing beneath them, causing leaks and requiring modern techniques for weather-sealing. Beech Gardens, the first phase of the re-waterproofing project, marked a shift from conventional, high maintenance municipal horticulture to a low-water-use, dynamic planting approach.
In this revamped landscape, I oversaw the replacement of lawns, bedding plants, groundcovers, trees, and shrubs that required continuous irrigation and a high maintenance regime, with native, drought-tolerant species.
Ideally located in various microclimates across the site, three main plant communities have been designed, each tailored to thrive in different sunlight and substrate conditions. In open, sunny, exposed, windy areas with shallow substrate depths, a ‘steppe’ grassland has been established using hardy grasses and perennials. In areas with greater substrate depth, a ‘shrub-steppe’ planting offers a mix of dry-tolerant perennials, grasses, low-density shrubs, and multi-stemmed trees. Lastly, in sheltered and shaded areas, dry woodland plantings feature multi-stem trees creating a light, open canopy with a scattered understorey of shrubs and diverse perennials.
Public feedback gathered during consultation expressed a dislike for a winter-barren landscape. To cater to this, I embraced a high proportion of winter-green plants, making this an essential feature in my future projects.
After ten years, the gardens now harmonize a robust, stable framework of resilient plants with ‘pop-up’ plants that add seasonal diversity. The main areas of the steppe are dominated by grasses Sesleria nitida and Helictotrichon sempervirens, forming an evergreen steel-grey matrix. In spring, these grasses bloom white flowers above the leaves below, while annuals like Primula veris, Tulipa praestans, Aster amellus, and Kalimeris incisa offer a succession of flowers from March to November. The gardens are also adorned with evergreen Euphorbia characias and Euphorbia characias subsp. wulfenii.
The dynamic, naturalistic plantings in Beech Gardens have inspired a prototype for future projects, signaling a move away from grass-and-perennials-dominated plantings. The gardens are a testament to the relevance of self-seeding annuals and biennials, with Erodium manescavii, Silene coronaria, and Melica ciliata remaining prominent in the landscape.
The growing medium, a low-fertility, free-draining, green-roof substrate, plays a significant role in the ongoing diversity of the Beech Gardens plantings. Ten years without adding additional fertilizer have only strengthened this unusualTESTY garden.
Dynamic plantings require dynamic gardeners, and we've been fortunate to have inspiring individuals like Judy Ubych and Ruby Sweet who have taken Beech Gardens to heart and contributed to its success.
The second phase of the re-waterproofing project is now underway, introducing twice the gardening space as the first phase and promising a continuous 350m-long pedestrian pathway through the plantings from The Barbican underground station to the Barbican Conservatory. The revamped landscape will maintain the Phase 1 ideas while incorporating an increased proportion of shrubs and a focus on a diverse ground layer tapestry with resilient plants and bold architectural woody plants.
Find out more about Beech Gardens at thecityofldn.com
The Beech Gardens at the Barbican Estate, now in its second phase of re-waterproofing, showcases sustainable and climate-adapted landscape design.
With a shift from traditional horticulture to a low-water-use, dynamic planting approach, the gardens feature three main plant communities: a 'steppe' grassland, a 'shrub-steppe' planting, and a dry woodland.
Ideal for various microclimates across the site, the gardens boast a harmonious blend of resilient, evergreen plants, including Sesleria nitida, Helictotrichon sempervirens, Euphorbia characias, and Euphorbia characias subsp. wulfenii*.
Ten years later, the gardening space has been increased, offering a continuous pedestrian pathway through the diverse, colorful plantings from The Barbican underground station to the Barbican Conservatory.
Fostering a sense of community and encouraging a love for home-and-garden lifestyle, individuals like Judy Ubych and Ruby Sweet have played crucial roles in the success of the Beech Gardens.
