The Hepworth Wakefield Garden
A Returning Visit
Looking back through old notebooks and photos, I found that three years had passed since my last visit to the Hepworth Wakefield Garden in West Yorkshire, bookending the pandemic. How apt then to return to a garden created to draw in the local community as well as out-of-towners, delivering a space for everyone. Indeed, when the gallery commissioned Tom Stuart-Smith to design the garden (the winning entrant into a 2015 competition), there were two stipulations: The garden had to have complete public access 24/7, and there needed to have year-round interest. Katy Merrington, the first Cultural Gardener at the Hepworth, describes the garden as ‘…a place designed for care and beauty, where we can come together, it is a social space as much as it is a physical one.’
Hepworth's summer planting with old factories in background
Design
When first considering entry into the competition, Stuart-Smith states that ‘the garden […] needed to be a place in its own right and not just a massive carpet in front of the museum.’, and to this end it succeeds. It is a destination in its own right. He also suggests a need for the garden to have an enclosing feel, and to shield its visitors from a busy road. A wall blocks the noise and outlook from the road, with a row of pin oaks (Quercus palustris) and other trees cushioning the sound and softening what might be an imposing construction.
One of the first things you notice about the garden aside from the plants, is the unusual shape of the paths, seating, flower beds, and lawns. The design is full of awkward angles, asymmetry, and misalignment. Seen in the video below, linear paths interconnect with gentle curves creating a patchwork of irregular beds and lawned spaces.
A meandering route through the Hepworth garden
The inspiration for these shapes come from several sources. Stuart-Smith cites Barbara Hepworth’s Kneeling Figure, 1932 as an influence; a sculpture of a woman with similar angular features, described by him as having an ‘awkward naturalism’. He also took inspiration from narrowing and broadening of routes used in medival town plans, where roads were not necessarily laid out in parallel to one another but in accordance with frequency of use and with regard to land ownership.
The layout could also be reminiscent of the form of the gallery itself. The Sir David Chipperfield architecture is like a series of angled crumpled boxes, internally connected. The angles are reflected in the garden albeit in naturalised form. These shapes give the garden a distinct characteristic that is echoed in the lawns and seating, and makes for a pleasant experience, with plenty of places to stop and admire the garden from. The shape is even echoed by the 120m of beech hedging that edge some of the beds.
Hepworth Gallery and Garden rendered image from above
Credit: Stuart-Smith, T. (2023), available at: https://www.tomstuartsmith.co.uk/projects/hepworth-wakefield
Planting Design
Stuart-Smith intended the layout and hard landscaping to be relatively simple with plain concrete paths, and granite setts the only materials visibly employed. No steps or noticeable level changes occur - as was the necessity for accessibility.
The complexity of the garden lies in the planting where, at its inception, there were over 115 different plant types in the garden.
Echinacea pallida lighting up in late summer
The diverse range of plants is used in part to ensure of year round interest, with 60,000 bulbs bursting into life in the short days of winter and spring, huge swathes of perennials enriching summer with colour, and grasses and other perennials taking us from late summer to autumn.
Aside from the aforementioned pin oaks that bookend the garden, a number of other smaller trees are positioned around the perimeter, enclosing the garden from the industrial outlook, such as Staghorn sumac (Rhus typhina) and Magnolia salicifolia ‘Wada’s Memory’. A relatively small amount of shrubs are included, mostly inhabiting the woodland style area (Daphne bholua ‘Jacqueline Postil’ and Philadelphus ‘Erectus’), however the greatest proportion of the space is made up of prairie-like perennials.
Trees (Rhus typhina and Prunus x yedoensis) at the Hepworth garden perimeter
Grasses such as Hakonechloa macra and Stipa calamagrostis are a vital ingredient in this planting mix, providing long periods of interest, movement, and a backdrop for the floral highlights. My recent visit in early October sees the grasses somewhat at their peak in many ways. Where they begin to brown, and those with seedheads sway in the breeze.
Stipa calamagrostis
The beech hedges in the garden perform such an important role in the design. They give a solid, strong form to the perennial swathes in the central section of the garden, acting not only as a backdrop for the showier plants, but also as dividing force, preventing you see the whole garden at once. In this way they build intrigue and urge you to continue your journey through the space. At the same time, the hedges assume the same design language as the paths and benches - a soft ‘L’ shape - that works brilliantly.
Clipped beech hedges edging the flower beds
Sculpture
Wakefield’s most famous daughter Barbara Hepworth (1903-1975) describes her sculptures as an ‘act of praise’, and I think there is no better place for sculpture than in a public space. The Hepworth Wakefield Garden serves as a open gallery for the public to see sculpture amongst the planting, allowing 360 degree views of some of the collection held by the gallery. Much like ‘eye-catchers’ in any garden, the sculpture draws your interest and pulls you through the space.
Pitchfork (2013) by Sir Michael Craig-Martin
Like many galleries and gardens alike, this space that is not huge in scale offers a huge amount to the observer, demanding further return trips. I will certainly be back soon.
References
Collins, M. (2020) 'It makes people feel safe': how the Hepworth Wakefield garden inspired a community, available at: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2020/nov/14/makes-people-feel-safe-hepworth-wakefield-garden-inspired-a-community
https://hepworthwakefield.org/whats-on/the-hepworth-wakefield-garden/
Stuart-Smith, T. & The Hepworth Wakefield (2021) The Hepworth Wakefield Garden, The Hepworth Wakefield
