Charles Hullmandel after George Scharf, A View of the Vivarium … in the Garden of Joshua Brookes Esq., Blenheim Street, Great Marlborough Street (detail), 1830. London Picture Archive.
Please note that this event has been rescheduled from Thursday 5 May and will now be held on Monday 23 May.
Renowned landscape architect, historian and author Todd Longstaffe-Gowan, reveals the weird and wonderful English garden-makers who, between the 17th and early 20th centuries, created intensely personal and idiosyncratic gardens that incorporated a range of curious features. From miniature copies of the Matterhorn and the Swiss glaciers, to gargantuan yew topiaries, exotic birds and animals, excavated caves, and assembled architectural fragments and fossils, these eccentrics - such as the superstitious antiquary William Stukeley, the pleasure-ground proprietor Jonathan Tyers, and the bird loving Lady Reade - realised their gardens in a way that was often thought to be excessive.
English Garden Eccentrics: Three Hundred Years of Extraordinary Groves, Burrowings, Mountains and Menageries by Todd Longstaffe-Gowan is published (26 April, 2022) by The Paul Mellon Centre in collaboration with Yale University Press (UK). Ticket holders will receive a code to use online via their website for 30% off the retail price (UK orders only, free P&P).
Proceeds from our ticket sales benefit museums, galleries and other arts-based organisations and projects.
This is an online event hosted on Zoom which can be watched live, or on-demand for three weeks afterwards. You will receive your link to access the event in your email confirmation and the on-demand link after the event ends.