Oxford is better known for its academic achievements and historic buildings than its horticultural highlights but as Oxford College Gardens by Tim Richardson shows its green spaces are worth a closer look.
From Oxford Botanic Garden – Britain’s oldest – to the modernist style of St Catherine’s College, the book takes us on an alternative tour of the university.
And it’s as varied as it is unexpected. There’s the glorious herbaceous border at New College described by Richardson as “the longest and most magnificent herbaceous border in Oxford” with a complex mix of contrasting plants.
Corpus is known for its exuberant planting, Jesus for imaginatively planted pots that have been known to include herbs and strawberries while Lady Margaret Hall uses autumn mowing to create patterns in the fallen leaves.
At St John’s there’s a notable rock garden dating from the 1900s and made by the then bursar who was sent alpines discovered by other dons on their travels.
This college is also home to the oddly named Gooseberry Garden – “there is no evidence of any gooseberries.” – a secret space behind a locked door that is not open to the public.
Indeed, one of the book’s strengths is that it takes us beyond the well-known: the beautiful herbaceous border of Rhodes House that delights passers-by and the varied grounds of Worcester (pictured top) that include a lake, arboretum, rose garden and an herbaceous border described as “an exciting experimental space with all kinds of exotica”.
As well as giving an overview of the gardens today, Oxford College Gardens explores the path of their development and the history of their college with maps giving a clearer sense of the layout.
It also goes some way to demystifying somewhere that to the outsider can appear baffling; why Brasenose is so called is just one example.
Not every college garden gets a mention only those deemed “interesting enough or substantial enough” to be given a chapter but that still gives us 30.
This is an updated edition of the book, first published in 2015. It’s a revisiting that’s necessary because no garden, even one rooted in centuries of history, remains unchanged. At St Anne’s, where a mix of wildly differing architectural styles is matched by similarly diverse gardens, the description is already missing the new rooftop garden, part of the recently opened library and study centre.
As with many a gardening book, it’s the photography that lifts the prose and Andrew Lawson’s work is of his usual high standard with pictures that help to convey the atmosphere of the individual colleges. Altogether a fascinating glimpse beyond the porters’ lodge.
• Oxford College Gardens by Tim Richardson, photographs by Andrew Lawson, is published by White Lion Publishing, priced at £25 RRP. Buy now (If you buy through this Amazon link, I get a small fee. The price you pay is not affected.)
• Review copy supplied by White Lion Publishing. All photographs copyright Andrew Lawson.
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