Indoor gardens are booming in bars, restaurants, and hotels—making spaces feel lush, atmospheric, and echoing the near universal revival of houseplants. The latest space to join the fray is NoMad’s new outpost in London, a 91-room boutique hotel set in the extraordinary architecture of the former Bow Street Magistrate’s Court in Covent Garden.
Completed in 1881 (although operating in other nearby buildings since 1740), the central London court, with its imposing nineteenth century façade, had its fair share of high profile defendants from Oscar Wilde and the Suffragettes to disgraced politicians and East End gangsters, the Kray Twins. The architectural fabric is as grand as you’d expect in a Victorian Greco-Roman public building, and it provides the backdrop for richly glamorous and textural interiors by Roman & Williams and a planting design by Alasdair Cameron. We take a closer look at the pockets of pots bringing the city’s hottest new destination to life.
Below, some ideas to steal for your own indoor garden.
Above: “A lot of it is about form and shape,” says garden designer Alasdair Cameron of his latest commission to transform the NoMad into an English garden—albeit one with the challenges of central heating, low light levels and the bustling activity of a scene-y city hotel. “We use a really simple repeated palette of Alocasia, Philodedrons, Ficus lyrata and lots of ferns. Ferns always help.”
2. Cool and Shady Planting
Above: One of the major challenges of the site was the low light levels in many planting areas and the impact of a central heating system. The dark entrance has a woodland area with Magnolia grandiflora and camellias that are happy in these cool corridors.
3. Getting the Glass House Look
Above: The building’s original courtyard was created so that defendants could be driven inside the courthouse away from the crowds outside – now it has been transformed into a glass topped atrium, with pale celadon green pillars and iridescent tiled walls while etched glass lanterns and tiered hanging gardens create an Edwardian hothouse mood. Down in the dining area a vast trough contains miniature orange trees, clipped myrtle and ferns creating a verdant atmosphere but with little scent to disturb the diners.
4. Pump Up the Volume
Above: Playing with scale also helps create a rhythm through each area of plants that amplify the dramatic interiors. Stately forms of fig and Alocasia provide a backdrop to glossy evergreens. “The plants bring a domestic feeling but they also create an amazing atmosphere,” says Cameron, who also created the lush terraces and gardens at Annabel’s and The Ivy Chelsea.
5. Seasonal Additions
Above: The year round planting will be updated seasonally with hydrangeas, azaleas, spring blooms such as narcissi and hyacinth, as well as other seasonal bulbs while many of the large specimens are underplanted with more diminutive forms of jasmine and Lily of the Valley. Clipped laurels and beautiful citrus trees introduce more height and color.
6. Pot Power
Above: “The pots really do a lot of the talking,” says Cameron who sourced the beautiful antique and reclaimed planters from specialist dealers. Myriad urns, pots and troughs in stone, cast iron or terracotta in all different sizes are beautifully combined. “They are very much a part of the design process—they are as important as the plants themselves.”
When you register as a free Member of the Remodelista family of websites (Remodelista, Gardenista, and The Organized Home), you gain access to all current posts plus 10 archived posts per month, our internal bookmarking tool, and the community bulletin board.
Access 10 archived posts (older than one year) per month on each site
Use of our internal bookmark tool, so you can save products, posts, and other pages for quick reference
Access to our community bulletin board so you can ask and answer design-related questions
Unlimited access to the Product Catalogs, Design Travel sources, and Architect & Designer Directory listings
Choose from our ten newsletters to keep up with the latest on the sites
Or Subscribe for Maximum Value!
For $5/month ($59.99 paid annually) you'll enjoy unlimited, ad-free access to Remodelista, Gardenista, and The Organized Home and all the benefits of Membership.
Annual subscribers pay 50% off the monthly subscription price of $9.99
×
Subscribe to the Remodelista family of websites
For $5/month ($59.99 paid annually) you'll enjoy unlimited, ad-free access to Remodelista, Gardenista, and The Organized Home and all the benefits of Membership.
Annual subscribers pay 50% off the monthly subscription price of $9.99
×
Sorry! As a registered member you get 10 free posts from our archive (posts more than a year old) every 30 days. You have reached your limit for this 30-day period. If you would like to access unlimited posts from the archive (ad free, too), become a subscriber today, and keep reading as many articles as you want.
Full Access Individual Subscription
Benefits include:
Unlimited access to Remodelista, Gardenista, and The Organized Home sites
Ad-free browsing environment
Unrestricted access to 30,000+ archived posts
Receive the full-text daily newsletters
All features that Members have access to
Annual subscribers pay just 50% off the monthly subscription price of $9.99
Sorry! You have reached your limit of three (3) free posts from our archive every 30 days. You can increase this to 10 posts by joining as a free Member, or read unlimited posts with no ads by becoming a paid Subscriber.
Subscribe to the Remodelista family of websites
For $5/month ($59.99 paid annually) you'll enjoy unlimited, ad-free access to Remodelista, Gardenista, and The Organized Home and all the benefits of Membership.
Annual subscribers pay 50% off the monthly subscription price of $9.99
Become a Member at no charge
When you register as a free Member of the Remodelista family of websites (Remodelista, Gardenista, and The Organized Home), you gain access to all current posts plus 10 archived posts per month, our internal bookmarking tool, and the community bulletin board.
Congratulations on becoming a Subscriber to Remodelista, Gardenista and The Organized Home! You now have access to many great features across the sites:
Unlimited access to all three sites
Ad-free browsing environment
Unrestricted access to 30,000+ archived posts
Receive any of the newsletters, including the the full-text daily Remodelista and Gardenista newsletters
Use of our internal bookmark tool, so you can save products, posts, and other pages for quick reference
Access to our community bulletin board so you can ask and answer design-related questions
Congratulations on joining as a free Member of Remodelista, Gardenista and The Organized Home! You now have access to many great features across the sites:
Access to all posts published in the past year
Access 10 archived posts (older than one year) per month on each site
Use of our internal bookmark tool, so you can save products, posts, and other pages for quick reference
Access to our community bulletin board so you can ask and answer design-related questions
Unlimited access to the Product Catalogs, Design Travel sources, and Architect & Designer Directory listings
Choose from our ten newsletters to keep up with the latest on the sites
If at any time you want to become a Subscriber and enjoy unlimited, ad-free access to all our content, just go to the My Account link and choose Subscribe.
Have a Question or Comment About This Post?
Join the conversation