Despite the pandemic, Randle Siddeley enjoyed a triumphant year, completing vast projects here and abroad and winning the Independent Publishers’ Gold Medal for his book, The Garden: Before and After (Papadakis, £37). ‘Lockdown has made people more appreciative of outdoor space than ever before’, says Randle. ‘It’s an extraordinary time to be in outdoor design.’
Randle established his business over 40 years ago and now works with a team of 80 but he still relishes converting nondescript, small spaces, even lightwells, into imaginative, flowering havens. No challenge is too daunting, as dismal muddy fields and shabby urban courtyards are reincarnated as magical green oases, lending the houses they adjoin newfound stature and beauty.
In Hong Kong, Randle completed a project, the first of its kind in the world, creating six complementary but different six to 8,000 square metre gardens for a luxury development of new mansions, one neo-classical and the rest contemporary. Randle personally hand-picked and transported 900 mature trees from the Chinese mainland to transform a vast area of dirt into desirable real estate with expansive views over Discovery Bay.
Randle’s creativity is underpinned by simple but meticulous rules and practical common sense
Each garden called for an individual design, each with a pool and an emphasis on privacy. The Classical Garden incorporated a sweeping tree-lined drive and a David Harber water wall to accentuate the house’s neo-classical grandeur. Fernando Gonzalez designed a sensuous, sinuous 3D sculptural wall for the Wavy Garden, in which everything curves, from the pool to the seating area and steps. The tropical Water Garden has an infinity pool and three smaller pools while the Sculpture Garden features six dramatic sculptures by David Harber, including a Mantle Globe appearing to float on the pool’s surface, Water Dark Planet in the bedroom courtyard and Quill that creates a focal point on the lawn. For the Glass Garden, Randle commissioned specialist Andrew Moore to create a glass wall depicting a forest and five glass monoliths. Finally, the Mediterranean Garden is lush with ornamental grasses, agaves and junipers and includes a textured rubble wall and Jura Beige limestone paving.
At home, near Salisbury, Randle completed a 12-acre garden around a Georgian house that has been completely restored over the last five years. He spent most of lockdown next to Kenwood House in Hampstead, designing the 7.5-acre garden for Athlone House, which involved restoring a sunken garden by Gertrude Jekyll.
He also worked with Finchatton to complete the gardens for the Four Seasons’ new serviced apartments in Grosvenor Square. Here he created visual theatre, using sculptural artificial Californian silver birches, Bonsai trees and a huge living wall inset with slips of bronze mirror for maximum drama. Randle’s creativity is underpinned by simple but meticulous rules and practical common sense. ‘You can spend a fortune on a garden but you must know how the plants will survive,’ he says, ‘and you do that by employing the best and if overseas, working with the local landscape architect who understands the constraints.’ It’s his vision combined with this pragmatic approach that has placed Randle firmly at the epicentre of the outdoor design world.
Randle Siddeley Limited Trafalgar House, Juniper Drive, London, SW18 1GY +44 (0)20 7627 7000
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