The suburban landscape: 200 years of gardens and gardening.

Gardens are a vital part of what defines the suburban landscape. Gardened spaces between the houses, roads and stations help define the suburb as ‘suburban’ – at the heart of which is the private garden, at both the front and back of the dwelling.
This exhibition considered the significance of gardens and gardening in the making of what has become the most ‘English’ of landscape environments. The first part looked at the evolution of the landscape as a whole, including the development of public open spaces. It suggested that despite subsequent infilling and densification, the landscape had largely acquired its character by the Second World War.
Although increasingly at risk of development, private gardens still make up a large part of the suburban landscape and gardening remains one of the nation’s consuming passions. The second part of the exhibition argued that the private uses of the suburban garden are intimately linked to the shared values of the larger public landscape.