Just over 40 years ago, Randle Siddeley formed his landscape construction company, which quickly grew into a full-service landscape architecture practice, with a contracting division offering a full turnkey service, from initial sketches to ongoing maintenance. Today, he works globally with a team of 80, transforming dingy back yards or vast fields into magical oases. He has a deserved reputation for classic, timeless design that is also very contemporary and often excitingly innovative, but always respectful of the heritage of its surroundings.
Randle began his professional life working for his father, interior designer John Siddeley. He quickly realised that designing gardens was very different to renovating homes. ‘With interior design, you can see fairly instantly whether a paint colour or piece of furniture works,’ says Randle, ‘but with gardens you wait months – years – to see what effect has been achieved. Rooms stay static but gardens are ever-changing.’
As someone passionate about nature, it is a privilege to help clients design their perfect garden spaces
Randle’s philosophy remains rooted in a refusal to compromise, working with talented craftspeople to ensure every detail, from bespoke trelliswork to stonework, is finished to the highest standard. His firm belief is that any space, however tiny or dauntingly huge, can be transformed. However, he is also ever-practical, whether placing a swimming pool where it’s not a draughty eyesore or ensuring plants don’t need a ridiculous amount of maintenance to survive.
Randle works with artisans and artists like David Harber to provide talking points and eye-catching water features or sculptures. He worked with specialist Andrew Moore to create a decorative glass wall and textured glass shard sculptures, rising to about two metres and suggesting beautiful sea-cold flames or giant blades of translucent grass, thrusting skywards.
Though we’ve eased back into old patterns now restrictions have been lifted, our relationship with the outdoors has permanently altered. Those of us lucky enough to have al fresco space will never again take it for granted. Many now look to their garden as a valuable second room and last year Randle was busy ‘bringing the inside outside’, creating generous dining and family-friendly entertainment spaces, often with kitchens, integrated heating, outdoor snugs and clever pergola canopies. As we repurpose our gardens with patio heaters, wood burners and fairy lights, Randle continues to seek clever solutions for seamless outdoor dining and entertaining, whatever the weather. At the 2022 RHS Chelsea Flower Show, Randle collaborated with Blue Forest, whom he describes as the ‘Rolls-Royce of treehouses’, drawing many visitors to the company’s sumptuously comfortable safari-style accommodation up in the trees. Randle is also a fan of the film director Guy Ritchie’s Cashmere Caveman range of Wildkitchens, which Randle says, ‘represent a game-changing concept that will revolutionise al fresco dining, even in winter.’
Randle’s designs constantly evolve to adapt to his clients’ changing needs. ‘As someone passionate about nature, it is a privilege to help clients design their perfect garden spaces,’ says Randle. ‘A garden is both an intensely personal project and very public. Creating a space, however tiny or huge, that is both beautiful and usable is the most satisfying challenge we face.’
Randle Siddeley Limited Trafalgar House, Juniper Drive, London, SW18 1GY
+44 (0)20 7627 7000
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