The Museum of Garden History starts its dramatic reconstruction

On Friday 31st July the Museum of Garden history closed its doors to the public and opened them for architects, contractors and designers to begin the construction of a new gallery.

The museum will be closed for three months for the construction of better spaces for visitors to enjoy the building and collection. On 18th November, the museum will re-open as The Garden Museum, a new space to explore and celebrate British gardening and gardens through the collection, temporary exhibitions, events, symposia and garden.

The new interior of the Museum, designed by Dow Jones Architects, will include a gallery for temporary exhibitions and a new space for education. The Director, Christopher Woodward, explained the outreach of the project::

"We're shut for three months, during which time we're going to build new galleries inside this historic church, begun in 1384. It's a beautiful, bright space but it doesn't have spaces in which we can display works on paper, work with schools - or mount exhibitions. Last year we held a competition, which was won by Dow Jones, who have just been short-listed as RIBA Architect of the Year. Their design will be prefabricated in Switzerland and be delivered in three huge trucks. It's freestanding, and won't touch the old stone walls. It's a ground-breaking use of new building technology. In effect, we're fitting a modern museum inside an historic church, and it's amazing that we can do that in three months. At the same time we're building Britain's first venue dedicated to a programme of exhibitions about gardens and garden design."

The new gallery will open with the first-ever retrospective of Beth Chatto, one of the most influential living gardeners in Britain. The exhibition will examine the subtlety of her approach to design and explore important influences to her particular kind of gardening.

The new spaces on the Garden Museum will allow old and new treasures from the permanent collection to be displayed for the first time.

During the closure period the garden will remain open daily from 9.30 to 5.30. The Garden Café will open Monday to Friday from 10.30 to 4.45.

For further information, please see  www.museumgardenhistory.org