Garden Design & Landscaping in Holland Park

The area is characterised by large mid-Victorian villas and stucco terraces, along with the celebrated communal garden squares and, on the W14 side, substantial studio houses and family homes. Gardens are frequently deeper and wider than in neighbouring postcodes, with high brick boundary walls that make each one a genuinely private room.

Mature trees define much of the planting context. Plane, lime, sycamore and horse chestnut in gardens, on the streets and within Holland Park itself provide a canopy that is a great asset and a considerable practical challenge — dry shade, root competition, leaf fall and preservation orders that must be respected when excavating or building.

Almost all of W11 and this part of W14 is within conservation areas. Front gardens, boundary walls, gates and hard surfaces are sensitive, and some houses are listed. Soil is London clay, prone to shrinkage in dry summers close to large trees, which is relevant to foundations for walls, garden rooms and terraces.

A deep walled garden here is best handled as a series of connected spaces rather than a single sweep: a substantial terrace at the house, then a lawn or planted centre, then a quieter, shaded destination at the end where the mature trees are strongest. Framing the transitions with hedging, pergolas or a change of level gives the garden depth and a reason to walk down it.

Planting is the heart of it. High walls create a sheltered microclimate for climbers and wall shrubs, while the tree canopy calls for dry-shade planting with real soil preparation — the difference between an established garden and a struggling one is usually soil volume, mulch and irrigation rather than plant choice.

Where a garden adjoins Holland Park or a communal square, borrowing the canopy visually while keeping the boundary handsome is the goal: repointed brickwork, well-made gates, and pleached or trained trees rather than solid new screens.

Formal elements suit these houses — stone terraces, generous steps, symmetrical planting, water features, garden rooms and shaded pergolas — provided they are detailed with restraint and built to last, because in a mature garden the structures are what you see all winter.

Access is the first question on almost every project here: through the house, along a narrow side passage, or via a mews. We protect the route, sequence deliveries and remove spoil in staged loads, then get the disruptive groundworks done in one concentrated phase.

Our own teams carry out excavation and structural work, retaining walls, drainage and soakaways, brickwork and pointing matched to existing walls, paving, steps, tiling and pathways, and then joinery and metalwork — gates, screens, trellis, pergolas, garden buildings and stores. Excavation and foundation design near protected or neighbouring trees are planned to avoid root damage, and we advise where consent is needed.

The planting follows: soil improved or imported, trees and hedging planted at the right depth, borders planted properly, irrigation commissioned and lighting installed while the ground is still open. Written quote first, one company throughout, and a strict environmental policy on site.

Over twenty years of designing and building gardens across London, including mature walled gardens with protected trees.

A fully in-house service: design, groundworks, drainage, hard landscaping, joinery, metalwork, lighting, irrigation and planting by our own experienced teams.

Written quotes for all work, careful, tidy site management on sensitive streets, and the quality of workmanship and personal service that lead to repeat clients.