Plans for Garden Bridgewater, the RHS’s fifth garden at the former Worsley New Hall in Salford, have been submitted for planning permission to Salford City Council.

The proposals include designs for a new Welcome Building at the 154-acre site, provided by architects Hodder+Partners. They were invited to design a world class visitor centre which will provide a gateway to the gardens, as well as designs for the reuse of existing buildings for catering and retail purposes. Other material featured in the planning submission includes garden designs by landscape architect Tom Stuart-Smith, who produced the master plan for the site.


Key elements of the aspirational horticultural master plan include for which plans were revealed last year include an entrance garden laid out like a web and planted as a perennial meadow, a new lake which anchors the new visitor building within the landscape and a water garden of interlocking streams and rocky waterfalls

Plans also include the reconstruction of the historic walled garden, to include a therapeutic garden, vegetable garden and flower garden as well as a  new Learning Centre.

The 154-acre RHS Garden Bridgewater is planned to open in 2019 as part of the RHS wider 10-year £160 million investment programme to achieve its Vision to enrich everyone’s life through plants, and make the UK a greener and more beautiful place.

On arrival to the garden visitors will be able to wander through a large garden planted as an extensive perennial meadow, with a network of web-like paths, which will lead them to the historic walled garden.

A new visitor building, to be designed by Cullinan Studio, and adjacent car parking facilities will be located at the southern edge of the site to avoid affecting the garden’s greatest assets – its existing structures, landscape and mature trees. A large open café terrace to the east will allow visitors to enjoy refreshments while looking over the water and into the heart of the garden.

The immediate surroundings of the new visitor building will make a strong connection between the walled garden at one end of RHS Garden Bridgewater and the historic terraces and lake at the other. 

A new lake will link the visitor building to the heart of the historic landscape of the garden, which is formed by the Nesfield terraces and the original lake. A water garden of interlocking streams and rocky waterfalls will further link the two and draw people along its length, creating a strong visitor circuit around the garden.

The magnificent ten-acre walled garden, one of Worsley’s most impressive original features, will be the magnificent piece de rèsistance of the first phase of RHS Garden Bridgewater. It will comprise an impressive sequence of three walled gardens. 

The outer walled garden will include a mix of ornamental and productive gardening, and a therapeutic garden, while the intermediate garden will concentrate on vegetable and fruit production. At the very centre will be a flower garden based on the concept of the Paradise garden, complete with a lily pond. A new Learning Centre will be located at the north east corner of the walled garden.

Photo Credit Hodder and Partners and Tom Stuart Smith

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