HEMEL HEMPSTEAD WATER GARDENS

Hemel Hempstead Water Gardens 1957-59 Geoffrey Jellicoe



Hemel Hempstead Water Gardens 1957-59 Geoffrey Jellicoe

Introduction

The water gardens lie in the centre of Hemel Hempstead. They are of linear plan-form and have an irregular shape. They are an early instance of allegory and the sub-conscious being incorporated within landscape design. There are several water features including a canal, a fountain and a weir. A further feature is an area of planting laid out by Susan Jellicoe (Edwards, 1994).

The Water Gardens were designed between 1957 and 1959 by Geoffrey Jellicoe. Associated planting was by Jellicoe's wife, Susan. Civic Water Gardens 1957-9 was designed by Geoffrey Jellicoe as part of the new town development of Hemel Hempstead, also master-planned by Jellicoe in 1947 (Buteux, 2005).

Context and Background

After the Second World War, the government designated Hemel Hempstead as one of the sites of its New Towns Programme which was intended to re-house Londoners who had been left homeless by the Blitz. Architect and Town Planner, Geoffrey Jellicoe (1900-1996) was commissioned in 1947 to devise a Masterplan for the new town of Hemel Hempstead, for which his vision was a 'city in a park'. A key component of the planned new town's centre were the Water Gardens designed between 1957-59 by Jellicoe. The original drawings survive and show how he envisaged the site's layout. Jellicoe's intention was to create a place for pleasure and relaxation, by way of a sophisticated, well-arranged linear public park to create certain illusions and impressions (Edwards, 1994).

Hemel Hempstead Water Gardens is one amongst a number of Jellicoe's earlier schemes designed in the 1950s, which share many of his distinctive signature characteristics, such as canals, weirs, bridges, viewing platforms and associated planting by Jellicoe's wife, Susan. They have been subject to some minor alteration and changes in the 1980s including the construction of a screen wall and a children's play area on the north-western corner (Buteux, 2005).

The Water Gardens are an early instance of allegory and the sub-conscious being incorporated within landscape design, and a theme that featured in Jellicoe's subsequent work. Taking inspiration from the painter Paul Klee, whose works drew upon the comparatively new science of aerial photography, Jellicoe had the idea of concealing a ghost within the visible. When viewed in plan or from a distance, Jellicoe's design suggested the form of a snake, the tail curving away around the berm at the northern end of the gardens, the head with the fountain for its eye to the south, and the gently cascading weirs suggesting the snake's locomotion. The inclusion of the invisible within the visible is a documented aspect of Jellicoe's work which gives distinction and interest. In the case of the Water Gardens, the 'ghost within' gives the scheme an additional layer of intellectual and artistic intent that elevates it to something that is more than merely practical landscaping, contributing to its special interest.

The overall project, provided by Jellicoe, was only established the transformation of the watercourse and the adjacent land ...