Taking inspiration from the pleasure gardens of 18th century London this magazine engages its public with an array of attractions – ranging from the past to the present, the sedate to the salacious. Here we step away from the practicalities of the garden instead placing it within a wider cultural context. The pleasure garden was always a place to escape to - a fantasy in a garden, filled with art, music, fashion, society and sex. It is this mix that we transport to the printed pages of Pleasure Garden.
Issue 7
Issue 7 comes out of the blue, as it also dives into the beautiful blue, looking at our connection with water. Pleasure Garden on Sea plots the course of the pleasure garden as it manifests its ultimate incarnation on the coast. Jo Metson Scott documents part of this architectural legacy in her tour of British seaside piers, while Hugo MacDonald contemplates the return to favour of life beside the seaside in 'The Constant Sea’. We consider the possibility that every man is an island, with a look at poet and gardener Ian Hamilton Finlay and his garden at Little Sparta. Alison Morris explores Venice's marriage to the sea in the annual celebrations of the Festa della Sensa...
Issue Six
A Japanese Dream finds us exploring our subconscious travels and interpretations of the Land of the Rising Sun. Our Icon Isamu Noguchi is a man who represents much of the dialogue between Japan and the West through the twentieth century. Within his work we find an inspired merging of cultures - Hiromi Matsugi looks deeper into this in Beyond Borders. We also look into the playful side of Noguchi’s work in The Landscape of Play with words by Vincent Romagny and Moerenuma Park in Hokkaido photographed by Sebastian Sabal-Bruce. Oliva Meehan looks at the opening up of Japan in the late nineteenth century in Some Japanese Flowers and Trees for the imagination and Anne Koval also reflects on the Japonisme influencing the artist Whistler’s work in Nocturne...
Issue Five
This issue sees us go Au Naturel - uncovering a theme that has had shifting boundaries and conflicting definitions. Our Icon William Robinson was a man who sought to imagine a new, more ‘natural’ style of gardening. Jo Metson Scott photographs his legacy at Gravetye with words by Richard Bisgrove. Jonny Bruce takes us on a journey to three subversive gardens that liberated his thinking of what a garden could be. We revisit Howards Sooley’s photographs of Derek Jarman and Dungeness and he shares memories of his friend in Mourned by the Wind. Concepts of beauty are bought under the spotlight with Against Nature by Bethan Cole, photographed by Drew Vickers, and A Vision of Beauty by Sarah Jane Downing. We also take a look at The Bush with artist Ruth van Beek and explore the idea of being naked in At One with Nature...
Issue Four
The Romance of the Trees sees Pleasure Garden wander into the forest where we uncover the special relationship we have with trees—their deep roots that run through our unconscious. In the Beginning—The Tree of Life opens the issue with Alison Morris considering the cultural metaphors, symbolism and role the tree plays in our worldview. Ernest Henry Wilson our Icon, is a man who hunted far and wide in search of new trees to bring to the West. His road trips around New England in the 1920s, documenting the remarkable elms there, stirred us to undertake our own. Yoshiyuki Matsumara headed to Upstate New York taking in the autumn tones, whilst Linda Brownlee visited the giants of California...
Issue Three
Issue Three celebrates the rose—a flower perhaps more fetishised and deeply entwined in the mythology of our culture than any other. From a misogynist symbol to a feminist icon, Catherine Wagley looks at the rose’s long and thorny journey in Fetish of the Rose with photographs by Benjamin Fredrikson. The Empress Joséphine has long been talked of as a rose icon. However, Jennifer Potter unpicks this assumption and others in Myth of the Rose. Maciek Pozoga and Samuel Bradley take a journey across Paris in Pilgrimage of the Rose. Charles Quest-Ritson guides us through the horticultural history of the rose...
Issue Two
Our path into the Pleasure Garden continues with Issue Two and escapism is provided on many levels. The posters of Copenhagen’s Tivoli Gardens capture the magic and fantasy of the 174-year- old Danish institution. Marton Perlaki disappears into the wintery parks of Budapest, inspiring Judit Hevesi’s words on a love story that may have been. Our icon is Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown—the well-known 18 th -century landscape designer who defined the English style. Kate Felus introduces the man and his achievements, academic Tom Williamson sets Brown’s work in the context of the time, whilst Tom Johnson and Luke Edward Hall share their experiences of a weekend away at Stowe...
Issue One
In this, our inaugural issue, we introduce the concept and history of our inspiration – the pleasure garden. Alex Tieghi Walker traces Vauxhall’s reputation for pleasure into the modern day. Drew Vickers photographs New York florist Brittany Asch as she talks art and flowers with Catherine Wagley. Our icon for the issue is Valerie Finnis – a gardener and photographer who captured the characters of horticultural post-war Britain. Howard Sooley shares his photographs and fond memories of Finnis from her later years and inspired by our icon we take a trip across Switzerland to visit two alpine gardens at altitude. Annemarieke van Drimmelen beautifully captures Stella Tennant at Edinburgh Botanical Gardens for a story about the family gardening gene...