Team

Designers: Harris Bugg Studio

Sponsor: Project Giving Back

Contractor: Ryan Alexander Associates

Architect: Mcmullan Studio

Plants: Kelways

Trees: Deepdale Trees

Hedging: Big Hedge Company

Protoyping/testing special details: Skye Stone Studio + Chimo Sheffield

Structural Engineer: Heyne Tillett Steel

Environmental Engineer (building): Atelier Ten

Fabrication (building): Weber Industries

Water Engineering: Studio Ewing

Fabrication (water): Dynamic 3 Ltd

Stonework: Noble Stonework

Lighting: Landscape Plus

Paving Partners: CemFree (DBG Holdings), Poundfield Precast, Stoneworld

Horatio’s Garden Chelsea is a place of true respite for those affected by traumatic spinal injuries. Designed by Charlotte Harris and Hugo Bugg, this adaptive garden puts the priorities of all those with different mobility needs at its heart and embraces the mission of Horatio’s Garden charity to nurture wellbeing after spinal injury.

Beginning its life at Chelsea Flower Show, before being relocated to its legacy home at the Northern General Hospital in Sheffield, the garden is the antithesis of a busy, clinical hospital setting where patients often spend many months on a ward with no privacy or access to outside space. 

Every element of the garden has been informed by the experiences of patients with spinal injuries. Planting is layered to accommodate different ways of seeing, a garden room provides welcome relief from the busy ward. Smooth, cement-free terrazzo paths  are patient-friendly, environmentally-friendly and aesthetically beautiful. 

The design is influenced by the stories, history and craftsmanship of the Sheffield region, connecting the garden to its legacy home where it will serve thousands of patients, families and NHS staff each year at the second largest spinal injury centre in the UK.

This new garden in Sheffield, also designed by us, will be the eighth Horatio’s Garden and support thousands of patients, relatives and NHS staff for years to come.

The garden won a Gold Medal and the coveted Best in Show Award at RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2023.

The Chair of Show Garden Judges, Marie-Louise Agius, said: “The standard of the Show Gardens this year was extremely high. What particularly stood out about The Horatio’s Garden was how the design had been driven by the end user, to be experienced by spinal injury patients from a bed or wheelchair. 

‘The garden is uplifting, beautiful and considered, and for someone who has had a life altering spinal injury, it will provide them with a wonderful sanctuary. The brief and the garden was delivered at an exceptional level.”