Small Garden Design in Hither Green, South London

This small garden in Hither Green belongs to a ground-floor flat in a period terrace house. At around 10 metres long, with a narrow side return running alongside the property, it was a typical London garden in proportion but had very little that encouraged the client to spend time outside.

The whole garden had been paved with concrete pavers, with thick bamboo planted along both sides. There were old dwarf brick walls on the boundaries and a brick building at the far end. With so much hard surface and very little shade, the garden became particularly hot in summer and felt more like a passage behind the flat than an extension of the home.

The Brief for This Hither Green Garden

The client wanted the garden to feel like a natural extension of the flat, somewhere she would want to spend time rather than simply look out onto. She wanted a comfortable place to sit outside, with a small garden studio at the far end providing additional living space.

Her personal tastes also gave us a strong starting point. She had fond memories of travelling in South America and liked old objects that showed their age and history. She was also drawn to tropical vegetation and the atmosphere of rainforests, with a photograph of Machu Picchu already hanging in her kitchen.

Rather than copying any one place, those references helped establish the feeling we wanted the garden to have. It needed to feel enclosed and green, with a sense that you could step out of the flat and temporarily leave London behind.

Making Better Use of a Small London Garden

The first challenge was making enough room for the studio while still leaving the client with a useful garden between the flat and the new building. The long side return also needed to become part of the garden rather than remaining an awkward space beside it.

There was a gentle slope through the site, so the new layout had to accommodate the change in level and incorporate a step naturally. Shade was another important consideration because the existing garden was a suntrap, with the concrete paving holding heat throughout the day.

I also wanted to move away from the feeling of one straight rectangular space. In a small garden, seeing everything immediately can make the space feel even smaller, so the layout was designed to reveal itself gradually as you moved through it.

Reusing the Existing Paving

Keeping the existing concrete pavers became an important part of the garden design. They had already weathered and aged, which suited the client’s preference for materials with some history, and there was no reason to replace something that could still be used successfully.

We lifted the pavers and laid them again in a completely different arrangement. Instead of reinforcing the rectangular shape of the garden, the new paving follows a less rigid route towards the studio.

Planting beds cut in and out along the edges, creating a more meandering path and preventing the garden from being read as one long strip. You no longer see the whole space from either end, which gives the garden a greater sense of depth despite its relatively small size. Reusing the paving also reduced the amount of new material needed for the project and kept costs down, while preserving some of the aged character the client liked.

Designing the Hither Green Side Return

The side return gave us another opportunity to create usable space. Left open, its height and narrow proportions made it feel quite exposed, so a pergola was introduced overhead.

This lowered the visual scale of the space and made it feel more enclosed. It also gave the side return a stronger relationship with the main garden and created another place where the client could sit rather than simply walk through. By treating the side return as part of the garden rather than a leftover area beside the flat, we were able to make much better use of the limited outdoor space available.

Tropical Planting for a Small Garden

The planting focused heavily on evergreen plants, which helped create the dense, green atmosphere the client wanted while also giving the garden structure throughout the year. Existing tall trees in the neighbouring garden already provided some height on one side. Along the boundaries, slatted fence panels were added above the dwarf brick walls to increase privacy without creating a completely solid enclosure. Clematis and jasmine were planted to grow through these areas and soften the boundaries over time.

The planting was chosen to create shade as it matured and to give the garden a more tropical character without relying on a literal theme. A corten steel bowl filled with water was also introduced into the planting, adding moisture and another quiet reference to the rainforest atmosphere the client responded to.

A Hither Green Garden That Feels Removed from London

What worked particularly well was the way the existing materials could be used to create a completely different garden. The same concrete paving remained, but changing its layout altered how the whole space felt and how you moved through it. The irregular borders softened the original straight lines, while the evergreen planting brought shade and a sense of enclosure throughout the year. Together, they made a relatively small garden feel more layered and much less predictable.

Most importantly, the garden now gives the client somewhere she wants to spend time. There is a place to sit between the flat and studio, another quieter area within the side return, and planting that creates the sense of escape she had wanted from the beginning. The client later wrote:

“I’d love you to be a part of my/our lovely garden now & in the future!”