The spinal injury charity Horatio’s Garden has started work on its eighth garden, at The Princess Royal Spinal Injuries Centre Unit at Northern General Hospital in Sheffield. Charity founders Dr Olivia Chapple and David Chapple celebrated the start of the build of Horatio’s Garden Sheffield & East which will feature a series of bespoke designed elements inspired by the history, geography and industry of its Yorkshire home.
The Sheffield garden has been designed by Charlotte Harris and Hugo Bugg of Harris Bugg Studio who also created the charity’s award winning 2024 RHS Chelsea garden, and will now be built by Sheffield-based contractors RLX Construction and project managed by Gleeds.
A beautiful, accessible and therapeutic place for people facing life-changing injuries and long stays in hospital, the garden will support an extensive geographical area from the West Midlands to East Anglia, South Yorkshire to Lincolnshire. More than 360 in-patients, their family and friends, thousands of outpatients, as well as over 250 NHS staff looking after them will benefit from it every year once it opens in 2025.
Dr Olivia Chapple, Founder and Chair of Trustees at Horatio’s Garden, said: “We know how much of a difference our gardens make to people reflecting and adjusting after a life-changing spinal injury. Horatio’s Garden Sheffield & East will be a special place with a profoundly positive impact for people, their families and NHS staff and we are so thrilled to bring our Best in Show winning garden at RHS Chelsea to the heart of Sheffield to benefit so many people every year.”
Dominic West, Sheffield-born actor and appeal patron for Horatio’s Garden Sheffield & East said: “I was lucky enough to see the Best in Show winning garden at RHS Chelsea Flower Show last year and to talk to the designers Charlotte Harris and Hugo Bugg and to Dr Olivia Chapple about all the wonderful elements in the garden. It is particularly interesting to me because I’m from Sheffield and the garden is being created in Sheffield. The bronze casting of the cutlery moulds for the water feature are so striking to me as my grandfather was a Master Cutler in Sheffield. Horatio’s Garden is an amazing charity, formed in memory of a wonderful young man who came up with the brilliant and simple idea to create a garden in which people with spinal injuries could find spiritual nourishment and recuperation in beautiful surroundings.”
The garden has been generously funded by the National Garden Scheme, Project Giving Back, charitable trusts and foundations and other supporters. The charity is now fundraising to ensure that Horatio’s Garden Sheffield & East can continue thriving, for countless years to come.