Recording Garden Design History in the Making

One of the most famous and sought-after garden designers of the late 18th Century was Humphry Repton (1752-1818) who in 1795 published his popular book 'Sketches and Hints on Landscape Gardening'.

Like many of his later books, this volume drew heavily on the now famed "Red Books" Repton had produced for his various clients. These were bound volumes made of red leather (hence the name) detailing both "before" and "after" sketches which, today, give us a fantastic historical record of what was fashionable in garden design at the time he was working on estates as well known as Tatton Park, Woburn Abbey and West Wycombe.

In this same spirit and with the same desire to preserve details of the design process for generations to come, I am currently compiling an archive of the work of another great but more contemporary landscape designer, John Brookes whom many regard as one of the top five garden designers of the 20th Century.

I was a former student of Brookes and believe that without the work of John Brookes over the last 40 years, the garden design industry that exists today would be a very different organization: John has been not only a major design influence for so many of us but without him, there would be no Society of Garden Designers, no Garden Design Journal in the UK and probably much less respect for our industry than we enjoy today.

His name is up there among the greats, including the American designer Thomas Church and the English designer Geoffrey Jellicoe and we want to not only produce a permanent digital archive of his work, but honor him and his contribution by keeping a record that future generations of designers and members of the public will find both inspirational and fascinating.

Initially, the John Brooke OBE archive, which will include before and after sketches of landscape projects from around the world, will be made available to students at the Oxford College of Garden Design but I’m hoping, eventually, to interest the British Museum in the collection and to run a John Brookes Garden Design Exhibition to coincide with his own students’ end-of-year exhibition in June, 2010.

Oxford College of Garden Design
Oxford College of Garden Design