Olivia Chapple at Chelsea Flower Show 2021
The vision for the garden is of a beautiful, immersive, restorative haven – the antithesis of a busy, clinical hospital environment. It is designed to give visitors to Chelsea Flower Show a sense of the hope and transformative effect having access to a Horatio’s Garden can have when coming to terms with a devastating and traumatic spinal injury. The garden is designed with the requirements of people with mobility needs at its heart.
The show garden will embody the special qualities found in all Horatio’s Gardens while incorporating influences from the Sheffield region, before forming the nucleus of a new, permanent garden at the Princess Royal Spinal Injuries Centre in Sheffield. Also designed by Harris Bugg Studio, Horatio’s Garden Sheffield will be the eighth Horatio’s Garden, opening in 2024. It will serve a significant geographical area from the West Midlands to East Anglia, and it will benefit thousands of patients, relatives and NHS staff for years to come.
Horatio’s Garden South West, designed by Cleve West, was the first garden opened by the charity in 2012 at the Duke of Cornwall Spinal Treatment Centre in Salisbury District Hospital.
The charity has launched their capital appeal to raise the vital funds needed to create Horatio’s Garden Sheffield in 2024 and is relying on the generosity of its supporters to reach its remaining target. No event or donation is too big or too small and will enhance the lives of people from an extensive region of the UK that have been affected by spinal injury, for many years to come.
Olivia Chapple, Founder and Chair of Trustees at Horatio’s Garden, said: “We are thrilled to be announcing our eighth garden is coming to Sheffield in 2024, where we know it will transform the lives of thousands of people. What better way of heralding this than showcasing the design at the world-renowned RHS Chelsea Flower Show where Charlotte Harris and Hugo Bugg’s brilliant design will enable to us to share the important message that great design benefits the lives of everyone.”
Charlotte Harris of Harris Bugg Studio said: “The mission of Horatio’s Garden really spoke to us – gardens as restorative, life-changing havens being the core purpose of the charity’s work. As designers, we believe everyone has the right to experience the benefits of nature and green space. Our design is about showing how meaningful, high-quality design can improve the lives of everyone in society and we want to show that functional and practical spaces do not need to compromise in terms of their beauty and aesthetics.”
Hugo Bugg of Harris Bugg Studio said: “Our driving force at Harris Bugg studio is connecting people with nature, and from the outset we felt strongly that we wanted this process of designing for Horatio’s Garden to be collaborative – our role was to listen to everyone in the Horatio’s Garden family. Those voices and needs are reflected in our Chelsea show garden and have helped us to create a place where people feel safe, nurtured and restored by all the benefits of being in nature.”
On 4 June there’s the chance to buy plants from the garden at an event at Longford Castle near Salisbury.
