Tom Stuart-Smith studied Zoology at Cambridge University and then read Landscape Design at Manchester University. He has been practising as a landscape architect since 1984, and now runs a practice based in Clerkenwell in central London.
Tom has developed a reputation as a designer working on a large canvas, creating landscapes that are modern, elegant and uncluttered, but never reduced to bland minimalism. Planting inspired by natural and semi-natural plant communities such as meadows and prairies is a trademark of his work.
Recent work includes a new garden at Windsor Castle to mark the Queen's Golden Jubilee in 2002, the reinvention of England’s largest formal garden at Trentham in Staffordshire, and the new garden around the bicentenary Glasshouse for the Royal Horticultural Society at Wisley, completed in 2007.
He has won eight Gold medals for gardens at the Chelsea Flower Show, including three awards for Best Garden in Show (2003, 2006, 2008).
Tom writes for a number of publications on landscapes and gardens. In January 2009 he began writing an occasional column for the Saturday Guardian.