Viva Brighton Issue #77 July 2019

MY SPACE
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Photo by Lizzie Lower
Kemptown's Secret Garden
Nick Dwyer, plantsman
The garden belonged to the house behind
us – 32 Sussex Square. The houses of that row
used to have very long gardens, stretching as far
as Arundel Road. This 30 by 40 metre walled
garden is the last remaining portion and still has
the original tunnel that runs under the road to
the house.
The house was first owned in 1830 by
Laurence Peel, the brother of the then Prime
Minister. The garden was bought by the family
of Antony Dale – the founder of the Regency
Society – in the 1950s. It was the wish of his
widow, Yvonne Dale, that the garden should
be preserved for the use of the community
and, when she died, the Antony Dale Trust was
formed by Gavin Henderson CBE (the former
Artistic Director of the Brighton Festival), to
preserve it as a sculpture garden.
This is my fifth year as the gardener. It’s a
great project. I come here each Monday and
have carte blanche to do what I want. I did some
research into Regency period gardens and it
seems they were largely green, with trees and
hedges, but I’ve planted this up as more of a
cottage garden with a large lawn. It works well
for displaying sculpture.
I use my intuition for the planting scheme.
When I arrived, there were a few small rose
beds, so I extended the borders around them
and added the big stuff, like the Echium and the
Cardoons. I’ve also planted some fruit trees –
apples, quince and a medlar – against the warm
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