New Hall gains a first – Cambridge College to create Chic Garden at RHS Chelsea

‘The Transit of Venus'
New Hall College, Cambridge University
Designer: Sue Goss

In what is believed to be a first for Chelsea, a Cambridge college will have a garden at this year's Chelsea Flower Show.

New Hall, a women's college of the University of Cambridge, will create a Chic Garden - 'The Transit of Venus'. The inspirational project is being led by Jo Cobb, New Hall’s Head Gardener. Her team, including the garden’s designer, Sue Goss, are all alumnae of New Hall.

The garden is inspired by the transit of Venus – it used to be thought that the distance between the Earth and the Sun could be calculated by observing the transit of Venus at different places on the globe. The race between France and Britain to send a ship to view the transit led to Captain Cook’s 1768 expedition in The Endeavour being funded by the Government. Joseph Banks, the famous botanist, joined the expedition and his collections and observations on that voyage resulted in the Florilegium, a collection of engravings of plants.

The edition of the Florilegium held in the Cambridge University Library was consulted as part of the garden’s planning.

Sue Goss, the garden’s designer, is a designer and lecturer who has won several awards at Chelsea. Ursula Buchan, award-winning gardening journalist and author, has provided the planting plan. Cambridge-based architect Anne Cooper is helping with sourcing of materials and Kate Gadsby is a garden photographer, whose calendar of images from the New Hall gardens has helped to fund the project.

Jo Cobb is obviously excited about the project and told Reckless: "We started thinking about Chelsea in 2005 and its taken all this time to plan and build the garden. Last February Ursula Buchan and I met up in South West Ireland at the farm of designer Sue Goss. There we talked about concepts, colours and the spirit of New Hall which we are trying to represent. We chose the title 'The Transit of Venus' because it was such fun and resonated in many different ways - it’s a big theme (science, maths, history, mythology) and even today Canadian Maureen Hunter is writing an opera called "The transit of Venus."

In 2004 the gardeners and students had actually seen the transit in New Hall's garden. In the process of thinking about the design Sue asked Jo to photograph the College inside and out and the result was quite a revelation: "Of the hundred or so pictures of anything from the dustbins to the lofty Dome, we realised that the modernist 60s architecture hadallowed light to curve and flicker and shimmer over the different surfaces in very beautiful and surprising ways." Jo explained. "We knew then that the important thing about the garden was light. This meant we have a prismatic planting scheme and reflections of plants in the mirrors and we can really think about colour and its effect."

Overall the team want to represent the youth and vitality of New Hall’s students through the themes of modernism, astronomy and art. Jo also points out that they want the Chelsea garden to be lovely to look at – flowers are the stars.

“The road to Chelsea has been great fun,” says Jo. “From making the clay globe from local Gault Clay in a brick factory, to researching the life of Joseph Banks and seeing the Banks Florilegium in the University Library – amazing – to meeting plants people and nurserymen, it has all been fascinating. For me the spirit of collaboration has been the best part and the plants. After all Chelsea is an excuse to grow fabulous plants and show them off!”

Lead sponsors Bluestone (www.bluestone.plc.uk) Mills and Reeve (www.mills-reeve.com) and AC Architects, are all local to Cambridge.

The Garden is full of symbolism and vibrancy which reflects the intensity of student life and New Hall’s world-class collection of contemporary art by women artists. The structure of the Garden celebrates New Hall’s Grade II* listed Modernist architecture.

The college is committed to the highest standards of education for women of all backgrounds, enabling students to realise their full potential at Cambridge and in their future lives and careers.

Their Chic Garden sounds exciting and vibrant and everyone at Reckless is looking forward to seeing the results.