Stars and Myths Inspire a Contemporary London Garden

For many gardens the design starts with a problem. The client and designer work through the problem, which the new garden then solves. This garden in London’s Crouch End began with the stars and Antoni Gaudí. Instead of focusing on an answer, garden designer Sara Jane Rothwell wove a story.

The idea started with the constellation art piece on the back brick wall. Various trips to Barcelona had created a deep appreciation for Gaudí’s work, and the clients wanted to include it in the developing celestial theme. “We began looking at the constellations of Antoni Gaudí and its links to the Garden of the Hesperides,” says Rothwell.

Gaudí was a celebrated Catalan architect noted for his innovative and whimsical use of shape, color and material. His first professional commission, at Güell Pavilions, included a wrought iron dragon gate, shown here, a reference to the Hesperides’ mythical garden.

In Greek mythology, a hundred-headed dragon named Ladon, along with three nymphs (the Hesperides), watches over the garden’s golden apples. In an attempt to steal one of the apples, Hercules defeats the dragon. It is suggested that Ladon inspired the name for the constellation Draco, which is near the constellation Hercules.


AFTER: Rothwell incorporated many pieces of the Greek myth into this garden. “The intention was to take these ideas further and add a contemporary twist to the garden,” she says. “The path crossing the garden is the result of linking up stars — bollard lights — to create the dragon constellation.” New Zealand wind grass frames the path and adds height and movement to the front of the garden. The planting is meant to emphasize the dragon shape of the path.


Rothwell designed the garden in zones. The level closest to the house, shown here, is the most ornamental. A rainbow-hued path of Moroccan tile winds its way through the space in a nod to trencadís, the vivid mosaic type favored by Gaudí. The vivid coloring represents dragon skin. Hydrangeas flank the path and pick up the color of the tiles.


The design loosens as you move toward the back of the yard. On the second terrace the paving material transitions to reclaimed Yorkstone. Flowers give way to foliage.


A fire bowl and seating area create a moment of pause to the right of the path.


Perforations in the spiral Cor-Ten panel continue the celestial concept. They represent constellations, and with the fire blazing twinkle like stars in the night sky.


The grove of trees at the rear of the yard was existing. Rothwell created a whimsical woodland scene using leftover soil from the project, topsoil and sand to form grassy mounds at the bases of the trees.

Around the fire pit at night, Rothwell says, the illuminated art piece and mounds create a symbolic scene of mountains and stars, “a projected landscape for contemplation,” she says.


Rothwell planted an apple tree in the front of the garden. Looking back toward the house, you can glimpse it in the far left corner. She also scattered three stone apples throughout the space in reference to the golden apples of the Hesperides. Here we see one apple in the fork of the path.


This 3-D drawing shows the progression through the garden.

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