Regents Park Garden

Regents Park Garden

A beautiful new garden at the heart of The Regent’s Park, commemorating the life of Queen Elizabeth II.

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The Royal Parks commissioned HTA Design to create something extraordinary: a garden that serves as a lasting tribute to Queen Elizabeth II, celebrating her remarkable service and lifelong love of nature and gardens.

The garden is the latest addition to the series of historic landscapes within The Regent’s Park, opening a two-acre former store yard to the public for the first time in over 100 years. While this new space sits in harmony with the park’s traditional landscape, it responds to our changing climate by being highly adaptable and resilient.

The straight path that runs through the garden will represent the late Queen’s unwavering loyalty and service with each end offering a moment of quiet reflection.  At the southern main entrance, visitors will be greeted by a large pond complete with seating and a pergola.

The central promenade will be bisected by a meandering path which will lead the visitor through a series of beautiful landscapes. A network of small-scale informal paths will allow visitors to wander through the planting and explore the garden further.

The plants chosen for the garden will be wildlife-friendly and will be designed to create a vibrant year-round horticultural display. The garden will include plant species that were significant to Queen Elizabeth II’s life.

The new garden will deliver a huge boost to biodiversity in the form of hedgerows, trees, meadows, wildlife-attracting plants and a new pond. Plants and trees will be selected that can adapt to the UK’s changing climate. The central idea underpinning both the design and its aesthetic was the reuse of materials arising from the demolition of the site’s greenhouses, resulting in an estimated 80% reduction in embodied carbon when comparing the largest carbon contributors with typical practice.

Episode 1: Demolition and clearance

Episode 2: Planting trial and concrete crushing

Episode 3: Shaping a garden for the future

Episode 4: Inside the garden design process

Episode 5: Planting the first trees of the new garden

Episode 6: Biodiversity in the new garden

Episode 7: Public planting day

Episode 8: Decorative metalwork for the water tower

One Place, Many Stories

Landscape Design

The Queen Elizabeth II Garden
Landscape Design

Local ecosystems and bioderversity
Sustainability & Building Physics

Sustainability and the circular economy
Activity

HTA shares their design process for a new garden in The Regent’s Park
Activity

Planning permission granted for new garden in Regent’s Park
Activity

HTA Design appointed by The Royal Parks to design new garden in The Regent’s Park, in honour of Queen Elizabeth II

Landscape Design

The garden, designed by HTA Design in collaboration with Horticulturalist Dr Noel Kingsbury and Tate + Co architects, complements nearby historic gardens within the park, drawing inspiration from their design principles while introducing innovative sustainability practices. Key features of the garden include a circular pond enhancing wildlife habitats, a central promenade with an accessible platform over the pond, and a vibrant flower garden showcasing species significant to the late Queen.

At the southern main entrance, visitors are greeted by a large pond with seating and a pergola, creating a welcoming and serene entry point. The central promenade is bisected by a meandering path which leads the visitor through a series of beautiful landscapes. Additionally, a network of small-scale informal paths allows visitors to wander through the planting and explore the garden further.

A disused water tower is transformed into an accessible viewing platform with panoramic views of the garden and its surroundings. The tower provides habitats for birds, bats, and invertebrates, serving as a unique educational tool for visitors to explore the natural oasis of the new garden and the wider park.

The new garden delivers a huge boost to biodiversity and sustainability through several key features, including a new pond and ephemeral wetlands, trees, hedgerows, and meadows, all featuring wildlife-attracting plants. The selection of plants and trees is carefully chosen to adapt to the UK’s changing climate. The new garden also includes plant species that were significant to Queen Elizabeth II’s life. Additionally, the straight path running through the garden symbolises her unwavering loyalty and service, with each end of the path offering a moment of quiet reflection.

Sustainability & Building Physics

What specific low-carbon options have been integrated into the park's design?

Sustainable practices have guided the garden’s development, such as reusing steel from the former nursery greenhouses to create elements of the new pergola and repurposed water tower.  Soil science consultancy Tim O’Hare Associates is collaborating to create growing mediums from site demolition materials.

HTA Design’s Sustainable Futures team is providing comprehensive sustainability consultancy, covering BREEAM Infrastructure Assessment, Whole Life-Cycle Carbon assessment, and setting Circular Economy principles for the new garden. Through LCA, the impact of using or retaining different project or site elements can be evaluated to identify lower-carbon alternatives for the entire project lifecycle (cradle-to-grave or cradle-to-cradle). Low-carbon features include sustainable concrete and biodegradable plant pots. We crush and mix recycled concrete sub-base with soil to enhance aeration and support climate-responsive, drought-tolerant planting palettes. Beyond material specification, our research into carbon sequestration informs our selection of plants and trees. This involves a calculation method informed by research into plant characteristics and soil sub-type composition, allowing us to incorporate selected plants and improved soil into the model effectively.