4 minute read
Horatio’s Garden, Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital
Typology: Orthopaedic care | Location: Stanmore
Considered design and horticultural therapy sessions offering spinal injury patients an oasis of hope
Tom Stuart-Smith Studio, Horatio’s Garden
Horatio’s Garden is a wonderful charity that creates gardens to support those recovering from life-altering spinal injuries. During the design process we were aware the garden would be experienced from a unique perspective, with most patients either in hospital beds or wheelchairs. The garden, therefore, needed to deliver direct restorative and rehabilitative benefits to those who had recently faced traumatic injuries, with often lifechanging results and a wide range of mobility needs
The garden now provides an escape from the clinical and overwhelming hospital environment. It is accessible and visible directly from the wards, and is therefore an integral part of each patient’s day-to-day life. Patient experience was carefully considered and prioritised at every stage of the design process, and the experience-led approach followed consultation with many groups in the Horatio’s Garden community, including gardeners, NHS physiotherapists and, critically, patients.
The masterplan includes two distinct garden areas that serve very different purposes. The first, designed around socialising with family and other patients, is centred around a garden building designed by Stephen Marshall that houses workshops and activities for patients and visitors. The second space, the contemplative garden, includes garden ‘pods’ and a series of calming water features that offer patients privacy and respite from the ward. Thus, the garden allows for both vital support and personal contact, as well as moments of calmness and solitude that are so needed during recovery.
The language of the garden is of curved, organic paths through planting, allowing varied and inviting journeys through both gardens. Semi-circular ‘nooks’ are arranged throughout so that, once inside, patients are encircled by planting and not directly facing the hospital buildings, providing privacy and a sense of escape. Islands of planting, breaking up the paths, allow patients and visitors to feel fully immersed in the natural elements of the garden.
Max Harriman is a Landscape Architect at Tom Stuart-Smith Studio.
Patients often come to us from the major central London hospitals, where the views out are rarely green and rooms are many floors up in a multi-storey building. For many patients, this also means that their introduction to the garden will be their first time using a wheelchair. This can be a daunting prospect, but the flat surfaces and gently curving paths encourage people to explore, knowing they can do so safely. Patients often practice their wheelchair skills with NHS staff in the gardens, providing a nonclinical environment to work in.
People are pleasantly surprised to find that they have a lush oasis to explore, right on their doorstep, and we’ve had patients comment that it almost feels like a resort. Direct access from the ward rooms means people are often out enjoying the sun or taking a breath of air between their occupational therapy and physio sessions. It’s also a place for quiet reflection or socialising, and the two sides of the garden allow for this. For visitors, it means a pleasant setting to meet their loved one, and they appreciate the privacy that the pods and garden room allow.
For me, the real joy is seeing people immersed in nature, and I am in the privileged position of being able to show people the everyday wonder of plants. The beautiful and intelligent planting by Tom Stuart-Smith Studio allows me to do this with ease, picking out plants with scent, interesting texture, colour, or even sound. In my horticultural therapy sessions, I take cuttings and sow seeds with patients, planting little grains of hope and looking forward, towards a brighter future.
Ashley Edwards is Head Gardener at Horatio’s Garden
