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A Secret Garden—and Glass Extension—in London’s Tufnell Park – Gardenista

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We’ve long admired the work of New York architects Messana O’Rorke, so when we inquired about the glass-wall extension and surrounding landscaping of an impressive project in London’s Tufnell Park, we were led to the work of landscape designer Joanne Bernstein. The project is Bernstein’s own property and when she took it on, the garden was an abandoned mess. The 120-foot south-east-facing garden is shaded by the large London Plane trees in the grounds of flats behind as well as a group of established trees within the garden. The challenge was to create a natural progression from the sunlit section to the shaded section towards the rear of the property. Bernstein designed three garden “rooms”, each with a slightly different atmosphere and texture but unified by hardscaping material and a single sensibility towards planting.

With a previous career as an art historian and curator, Bernstein holds an interest in modernism and strong geometry which continue to translate into her garden layouts along with a reduced palette of hardscaping materials. This is all balanced with “exuberant textured planting of both perennials and shrubs with a naturalistic, slightly wild, feel to soften the hard lines of the layout,” she describes. Join us for a walk through Bernstein’s garden.

Photography by Joanne Bernstein, except where noted.

Above: The garden walls are the original Victorian walls dating back to 1870s when the house was built. Says Bernstein: “The first three to four meters of the walls nearest the house are taller than in the rest of the garden to provide more privacy. The trellising adds more privacy and the climbing plants now cover the walls and trellising both.” The pavers throughout the garden are Sawn York stone from Stone Heritage in Derbyshire. Photograph by Sarah Cuttle for Joanne Bernstein.
Messana O
Above: Messana O’Rorke played a key role designing an extension to support the transformed landscape. They extended a wall with a transparent cube made a glass steel frame and flat roof. The dining area is set on a two-level platform that steps down to a small terrace with pavers leading to a second terrace, defined with transitional planting and then into the back-most, shaded section of the garden.
The flat roof of the extension functions as a living roof.
Above: The flat roof of the extension functions as a living roof.
Here, two perpendicular glass panels create a seamless corner that slide open creating, as Bernstein explains
Above: Here, two perpendicular glass panels create a seamless corner that slide open creating, as Bernstein explains “a direct and continuous relationship with the garden experienced inside the extension.”
The grasses are Miscanthus sinensis
Above: The grasses are Miscanthus sinensis “Hermann Müssel”. Yarrow planted here was Achillea “Mondpagode” but only lived a couple years due to the heavy clay soil. It’s since been replaced with Sanguisorba officinalis “Red Thunder.”

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