John Lewis 150 Roof Garden Oxford Street

We are delighted to announce that Tony Woods has been selected to design the John Lewis 150 Anniversary garden at the flagship London Store on Oxford Street. For the first time in the companies history visitors will be able to access the roof to enjoy the new garden area and enjoy breathtaking views across the capital.

The garden is currently under construction and the site is a hive of activity as the garden design comes to life in time for the 150th anniversary celebrations. The space will host various events throughout the summer as well as offer a place to escape and relax.

The John Lewis 150 garden has been designed to be a very social space and give a range of visitors a truly unique experience. We took the clients brief and looked at what the space needed to achieve back at the studio, experimenting with planting combinations, structures and people flow to understand how the space could work to best effect. Part of our research also included visiting the Longstock gardens which are part of the Leckford Estate owned by the John Lewis group. Longstock has stunning gardens including a world renowned water garden, a farm shop and plant centre. Longstock also holds national plant collections including Clematis viticella and Buddleja. It was fascinating learning about John Spedan Lewis’s interest in horticulture and nature. Nursery manager Mark Pitman showed us original planting and layout plans of the garden and hand written plant orders placed by John Lewis himself during the development of the garden. I left Leckford with a real injection of the enthusiasm and culture that the the John Lewis Partnership and Waitrose farm are truly passionate about. We have worked elements of Longstock into the garden design very subtly. Ultimately the John Lewis 150 garden is a garden for tomorrow – it doesn’t take itself too seriously, it’s fun and I think that when visitors walk on to the roof top they will smile – it’s not what you might expect.

The garden is using a really diverse range of plants to provide interest and colour throughout the 150 celebrations and add an oasis of Biodiversity above one of the busiest streets in Europe. Nectar rich plants and native trees are used to provide food and shelter for birds and insects combined with old favourites such as English Lavender and newer cultivars that tolerate exposed conditions. The garden also features living walls and a native wildflower meadow but possibly not how you might expect.

Visit Garden Club London Main Website Here…