A Perfect Partnership: Jekyll and Lutyens

A Perfect Partnership: Jekyll & Lutyens

At the beginning of the twentieth century, two exceptional talents came together to create what is now considered the finest surviving example of their long-standing partnership: the Formal Garden at Hestercombe Gardens. Explore the story through this exhibition now open on the first floor of the House.

Gertrude Jekyll (1843–1932), horticulturist, garden designer, craftswoman, photographer, writer and artist, and Edwin Lutyens (1869–1944) who many architectural historians regard as the foremost English architect of the 20th century, shared a belief that structural design and planting should work in harmony. Between 1904 and 1908, they transformed the south-facing slope below the house into a carefully orchestrated composition of terraces, rills, walls, pergolas and richly planted borders.

Their partnership, begun in the 1890s, produced over 100 gardens. At Hestercombe, that collaboration survives almost complete — architecture and planting still in perfect conversation more than a century later.

Today, the Formal Garden is Grade I listed and recognised as one of the most important historic gardens in Britain.