A Secret Garden—and Glass Extension—in London’s Tufnell Park

We’ve long admired the work of New York architects Messana O’Rorke. When we inquired about the glass wall extension and surrounding landscaping of their impressive project in London’s Tufnell Park, we were led to the work of landscape designer Joanne Bernstein. As it turns out, the project is Bernstein’s own property and when she took it on, the garden was an abandoned mess. The 120-foot southeast-facing garden is shaded by the large London plane trees in the grounds of flats behind, as well as a group of established trees within the garden. The challenge was to create a natural progression from the sunlit section to the shaded section towards the rear of the property. Bernstein designed three garden “rooms,” each with a slightly different atmosphere and texture but unified by hardscaping material and a single sensibility toward planting.

With a previous career as an art historian and curator, Bernstein holds an interest in modernism and strong geometry, which translates into clear garden layouts and a reduced palette of hardscaping materials. This is all balanced with “exuberant textured planting of both perennials and shrubs with a naturalistic, slightly wild feel to soften the hard lines of the layout,” she describes. Join us for a walk through Bernstein’s garden.

Photography by Joanne Bernstein, except where noted.

Above: The bamboo was chosen to create an evergreen screen between the middle terrace and the house so that, while sitting on the terrace, there would not be any building in sight. “We installed a root barrier around the planting bed to contain the bamboo,” Bernstein explains. “I chose one clump-forming variety, Fargesia murielae, but nonetheless, I have to thin it out in late spring and late summer as well as control its height to keep it separate from the lower canopy of the overhanging ash tree.”

For more London gardens, see our posts:

• 10 Garden Ideas to Steal from London
• Lost in Time: A London Courtyard Garden on a Camera-Ready Historic Street
• Garden Visit: At Home with Judy Green in London’s Leafiest Suburb