© Jason Ingram
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RHS Bridgewater

RHS Bridgewater is the fifth public garden by the Royal Horticultural Society. The 156-acre site in Salford includes the former Worsley New Hall and Nesfield terraces, a lake, 35 acres of woodland, parkland and a magnificent 11-acre walled garden. All this within 20 minutes of Manchester.

Tom Stuart-Smith, in partnership with the RHS, architects, engineers and various specialists, developed the masterplan for the entire site. This will be implemented in various phases.

As part of phase one, the new Welcome Building, designed by Hodder + Partners, and the adjacent gardens and new lake, designed by Tom Stuart Smith, form the garden’s entry point. The proposal for the immediate surroundings of the Welcome Building is intended to bring together a number of strands of the designed landscape in a single legible composition. In the broadest terms, as the visitor emerges into the space, the walled garden is on the left and a new lake is on the right. It acts as a vital link between this new area of the garden and the heart of the historic landscape while also helping to manage the considerable amounts of water in the garden.

The walled garden is the pièce de résistance of the first phase and is comprised of a series of spaces graduating from a large outer walled garden enclosed by a low wall, through to an intermediate garden which has a high wall on three sides, to an inner space which has high walls all around. The intention is that the garden experience parallels the spatial one, becoming gradually more intense and also more colourful. The detailed design for the most inner garden, the Paradise Garden, has been completed by Tom Stuart-Smith.

RHS Bridgewater opened to the public in May 2021.