300 years of visiting
The exhibition told the story of our love affair with other peoples’ gardens. From a travelling artist’s sketch of Henry VIII’s palace at Richmond – the earliest drawing of an English garden in existence – to Vita Sackville-West’s private photographic albums of Sissinghurst, “GARDEN OPEN TODAY! 300 Years of Garden Visiting” explored the centuries-old British tradition of opening gardens to the public. The exhibition looked at the influence of garden visiting on style and fashion and, above all, celebrated the pleasure, curiosity and inspiration that leads us to a stranger’s lawn.
This exhibition was supported by Coutts
In support of the exhibition we ran a series of events on the subject of garden visiting. We lined up some fascinating speakers including Alan Titchmarsh, John Brookes, Tim Smit and Fergus Garrett.