. : Tom Stuart-Smith : .

Biography

Tom Stuart-Smith took a degree in zoology at Cambridge University and then read Landscape Design at Manchester University. He has been practising as a landscape architect since 1984. Early work included extensive improvements at Plumpton Place, a moated medieval house reconstructed by Lutyens for Edward Hudson, the founder of Country Life, a new formal garden at Gorhambury in Hertfordshire for the Earl and Countess of Verulam, and a masterplan for the restoration of the arboretum at Eastnor Castle, Herefordshire.

After a period working with Landscape Architects Hal Moggridge and then Michael Brown he joined Elizabeth Banks Associates and became a director of the company. Much of his work over the next ten years was associated with historic gardens. This has included restoration plans for St Paul's Walden Bury in Hertfordshire, Hall Barn in Buckinghamshire and Trewithen in Cornwall. Notable garden and landscape design projects during this period included a new park at Wormsley, Oxfordshire for Paul Getty Jnr.; the 1 acre garden over an underground car park at The British Embassy, Paris; extensive work for the Royal Horticultural Society especially at Rosemoor in Devon, a Landscape Masterplan for Buckfast Abbey in Devon, a genetics research campus for the Wellcome Trust, set in 40 acres of historic parkland near Cambridge, and the redesign of the surroundings of Fidelity Investments' head office at Oakhill House in Kent.

In 1998 he set up his own practice with the aim of concentrating on fewer projects and being involved in every aspect of the work. He frequently collaborates with other designers, architects and sculptors.

Work at the Chelsea Flower Show has included six gold medal winning gardens ; They have included a baroque 'Bosquet' designed for Karl Lagerfeld and Chanel in1998, "Homage to Le Notre" for the Garden History Society and Laurent-Perrier in 2000 and a contemporary garden for Laurent-Perrier and Harpers&Queen for 2001. His garden for the same sponsor in 2003 won a Gold Medal and the award for the best garden in the show as did his garden for the Daily Telegraph in 2006.
Other work includes improvements to Church Court at the in London for the The Society of the Inner Temple with Architect Ptolemy Dean, collaboration with Todd Longstaffe-Gowan on the gardens at Aubrey House, South Kensington, (probably the largest private garden in central London after Buckingham Palace) and a large new walled garden in Oxfordshire including an abstract Potager extending over a third of an acre, based on the microscopic leaf structure of the principal native trees growing in the surrounding landscape. This garden has been extensively published. Other projects extend from Long Island to the south of France. In 2002 he made a new garden at Windsor Castle commissioned by the Royal Household to mark the Queen's Golden Jubilee. The BBC documentary film on the making of the garden, entitled "The Queens Jubilee Garden - The designers Story" was transmitted in July 2002.

His own garden in the country has appeared in numerous books, magazines and broadsheets and on television for BBC Gardeners World.

More recent projects include the recasting of the Italian garden at Trentham in Staffordshire, one of the largest formal gardens in England. The transformation of the garden has been described as "opulent, exiting, challenging and beautifully maintained" (Garden Design Journal). For the RHS he has designed the garden around the Bicentenary Glasshouse at Wisley, opened by the Queen in 2007 and is currently developing designs for the new learning centre at Harlow Carr.

For Chelsea 2008 he is designing a garden for the Laurent -Perrier to mark the 10th anniversary of their presence at the Chelsea Show.