RHS Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival

Show Gardens

Fun On Sea

This joyful garden is Southend through and through. Colourful beach huts look out over a sea of vivid planting and a beach of cockle shells

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'Oh we do like to be beside the seaside!'

Awards

  • Silver medal winner

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Did you know...

Designed by:
Tony Wagstaff
Built by:
Southend Youth Offending Service & Southend Parks Department
Sponsored by:
Sovereign Play Equipment
  • A garden with no budget, it was built by young offenders, and is filled with plants grown by Southend-on-Sea Borough Council
  • The cockle shells used for the beach came from Southend too
  • Some of the young offenders who built the garden have gone on to do horticulture courses

About the Garden

Celebrating the traditional British seaside experience and showcasing the town of Southend-on-Sea, this is a garden that evokes every anticipated element of a day at the seaside.

Southend is currently enjoying a resurgence of interest from day-trippers, pleasure-seekers and holiday-makers following revitalisation and investment in the town. Built from reclaimed materials, this is a garden that conjures nostalgia for the town’s 1950s heydey of bucket and spade holidays, amusement arcades and enjoying the peace and quiet of a sea view.

Following the show, the garden will be relocated to the town to promote tourism.