We take a look around the newly opened Queen Elizabeth II Gardens.
The first thing you notice: birdsong. The new garden is a natural amphitheatre, an open space encircled by mature trees. It's alive with tweets and trills; more so, it seems, than surrounding parts of Regent's Park. This alone would make the garden a special, but much more awaits...
Three and a half years on from the death of Queen Elizabeth II, her memorialisation begins in earnest. Work will soon start on a statue and walkway for St James's Park. Here, in Regent's Park, we get something more subtle in the ever-shifting shape of the QEII Garden.
The garden is built on the site of an old plant nursery. Until recently, this was a fenced-off part of the park, characterised by disused buildings and rafts of concrete. Here's the view, a few years old, in Google Earth...
And today it looks like this:
At just two acres, this is a modest site, but the design and planting make the most of the space. A sinusoidal path curves around gravelly banks, all planted with species adapted to the warmer, wetter climate we might expect in future. The garden is also big on recycling. The entrance pergola — as yet untroubled by the wisteria and other climbers that will one day thrive — is recast from old greenhouse metal. The paths and even the beds reuse ground up concrete from the old site.
"A garden of colour and contemplation, of biodiversity and beauty, of memory and hope," says the brochure, handed out to us keen visitors who attended on day one. It doesn't quite tick all of those boxes yet. The splashes of colour are numerous, but isolated. The biodiversity is something to grow into.
The garden will only come to full glory over years, as the plants put down deeper roots, thrive and settle in to their august home. It reminds me a little of the Olympic Park's first years, when the wilds still looked very tame and new. The QEII garden has a bit of a leg-up, with its perimeter of mature trees, but it still looks a trifle too fresh to fully realise the aspirational 'colour and contemplation'. That birdsong, though; it sings mightily the song of glories yet to come.
The garden is best seen from the water tower, a feature of the old nursery that has been retained as a modest viewpoint. Its structure is draped with ironmongery, depicting the national plants (rose, leek, thistle, shamrock) of the four parts of Her Majesty's Kingdom.
The Commonwealth gets a nod or too, as well. Many of the plants are sourced from Commonwealth countries, and the metal pergola has 56 vertical supports — equal to the number of countries in the Commonwealth.
The QEII garden is a lovely addition to Regent's Park, which will only surge in beauty as the years go on. If you're seeking horticultural spectacle, head a few hundred paces west for the rockeries and Queen Mary's Rose Garden. The garden of the most recently late Queen is more serene and subtle. Perch on one of the many, many benches, close your eyes, and just listen to those birds.
The Queen Elizabeth II Garden is open daily 9am-8pm. Entrance is free. It can be found north-west of the Broadwalk meets Chester Road. It's billed as a 'garden for everyone', which is true so long as you're not a dog. Even corgis are banned.
