A compact garden with a borrowed view

This intimate garden in Nunhead was designed around the needs of a client with a keen passion for gardening and limited mobility. A series of stepped volumes draws you through the space, presenting planting within raised weathered steel beds. A gravel path and compact barbecue area are woven in between, leading to a deck furnished with comfortable seating and a sun parasol.

At the rear of the garden, a bespoke screen of tensioned steel cables — suspended from a slender frame — allows climbers to soften an ugly sports ground fence without obscuring the expansive views beyond, where a steam train can be periodically glimpsed chugging between the houses in the distance. 

Snapshots from site, 2026