Tom Stuart-Smith
Tom Stuart-Smith OBE, FLI, Hon FRIBA, MA, BLD, FSGLD, RDI
Tom Stuart-Smith is a landscape architect and garden designer whose work combines naturalism with modernity and built forms with romantic planting based on close observation of nature. He read Zoology at the University of Cambridge before completing a postgraduate degree in Landscape Design at Manchester University. Tom has since designed gardens, parks and landscapes throughout the world.
Projects in the public domain include several at Chatsworth, a new public garden at the Hepworth Wakefield, and the masterplan for RHS Garden Bridgewater, which is one of the largest recent garden projects in Europe. At Bridgewater he was also responsible for much of the detailed design of the central area of the garden. In London he has designed Jellicoe Gardens in Kings Cross, a new Islamic garden commissioned by the Aga Khan Development Network and Argent, opened in 2021, and the dramatic recasting of a garden by St Paul’s Cathedral in the City of London with a large water basin at its centre, reflecting Sir Christopher Wren’s famous dome, opened in 2022.
Recently completed projects in the UK include a new garden at Knepp Castle that seeks to maximise biodiversity, and a new landscape to Aldourie Castle on Loch Ness in Scotland.
Current projects include gardens in Gujarat, New York State, Denmark, Spain, Germany and France. In the UK he is making a garden for Tate Britain, supported by the Clore Duffield Foundation and in collaboration with the Royal Horticultural Society which will open in September 2026 and a new garden for the National Centre for Music in the centre of Edinburgh.
Previous projects have included Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth’s Jubilee Garden at Windsor Castle, Trentham Gardens in Staffordshire, the Bicentenary Glasshouse Garden at RHS Garden Wisley and the Keeper’s House Garden at the Royal Academy of Arts.
International projects include Le Jardin Secret in the heart of the medina in Marrakech, a garden located on the waterways near Kottayam in Kerala, and permanent show gardens for the international horticulture exhibition at IGA Berlin 2017 and the international garden expo Beijing 2019.
Tom has also designed nine award winning gardens for the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, all of which were presented with gold medals and three ‘Best in Show’, between the years 1998 to 2024, for sponsors including Chanel, Laurent-Perrier, The Daily Telegraph and The National Garden Scheme. In 2018 Tom designed a special garden in the centre of the marquee, celebrating 60 years of the Garfield Weston Foundation supporting charities of all sizes across the UK and their partnership with the new RHS Garden Bridgewater. The following year he returned once more to design a feature garden for the RHS to celebrate the opening of Bridgewater.
Tom is a Vice President of the Royal Horticultural Society, a Trustee of the Garden Museum, an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects, a Fellow of the Landscape Institute, and a Fellow of the Society of Garden + Landscape Designers. Tom was awarded an OBE in the King’s Birthday Honours in 2023 and named a Royal Designer for Industry by the Royal Society of Arts in 2024.
In May 2021, Thames & Hudson published Tom Stuart-Smith: Drawn from the Land, a critical monograph of his work, written by Tim Richardson, which features twenty-four gardens from around the world.
Throughout his career Tom has developed his own family garden, The Barn Garden, at home in Hertfordshire, which is open to visitors each summer. He and his wife, the writer and psychiatrist Dr Sue Stuart-Smith, are also developing a community garden project on land close to their home.
The Serge Hill Project for Gardening, Creativity and Health is a Community Interest Company based in The Orchard at Serge Hill. This not-for-profit initiative offers resources to local schools, charities and other groups who wish to learn about gardening and experience the benefits of connecting to nature. The community engagement programme is aimed at those who have least access to the natural world. It opened to the public in 2024.
At the heart of the project is the Apple House, a large barn built on sustainable principles and set in the middle of a garden with a huge variety of plants. It provides a venue for community use by local schools and charities, and hosts talks and events.
They are also collaborating with the charity Sunnyside Rural Trust to establish a plant nursery in The Orchard, that will employee people with learning disabilities who will be growing plants for sale that have been propagated from the Plant Library.
The Serge Hill Project has gained international media interest, and been featured in the Financial Times, The Telegraph and extensively throughout the gardening press.
www.sergehillproject.co.uk
https://www.instagram.com/tomstuartsmith/
photo credit: Jiaji Wu