A Warming Winter's Tale

George Plumptre learns how the proximity of a new motorway turned around the fortunes of a historic hotel and its garden.

The gardens that enjoy a winter forte put form ahead of flowers; they’re all about lines and symmetry, monochrome shapes, silhouettes and patterns. All of this, ideally, where a balance is revealed with both house and garden. Few do it better than the garden at Great Fosters, in Surrey, where the immaculate designs of the original early- 20th-century garden have received an injection of new energy in the past 25 years.

This recent intervention highlights Great Fosters’ second feature of special interest: it’s an example of how a historic garden can absorb the intrusions of modern-day infrastructure while maintaining both its visual appeal and atmosphere.

There are two distinguished garden design names associated with Great Fosters, W. h. Romaine-Walker (1854–1940) and the contemporary designer Kim Wilkie—although, according to the author David Ottewill, in his definitive book on The Edwardian Garden, Romaine- Walker ‘was one of those architects whose natural flair for stylish eclecticism and pastiche has caused his name to be erased from historical accounts of the period’.

Looking at the work at Great Fosters, that judgement seems a little harsh. In 1918, Romaine-Walker was commissioned by the hon Gerald Montagu to revive the distinguished Tudor house he’d just bought, which had become derelict during the First World War, and to lay out a suitable garden. Romaine-Walker noted that his task was ‘to design such a garden as would re-create the old-world charm of the place and be interesting all the year round’.