Horatio's Garden is a place of sanctuary and hope, embracing the mission of Horatio's Garden charity to create and nurture beautiful, accessible gardens in NHS spinal injuries centres.
The garden showcases the key qualities of these special spaces while incorporating influences from the Sheffield region, connecting it to its future permanent home at the Princess Royal Spinal Injuries Centre in Sheffield.
Designed to be an immersive, restorative haven, the garden is the antithesis of a clinical hospital environment and strongly influenced by the ways of seeing and experiencing for patients, either from a bed or from a wheelchair.
Tactile stone cairns give rhythm and structure, water adds sensory experiences while an organic garden pod provides a cocooning place for physical and emotional shelter. A carved stone commemorates Horatio Chapple, the inspiration for all Horatio's Gardens.
The planting is influenced by the flora of the wooded valleys that provided essential timber for the forges and furnaces of Sheffield. Shrubs, selected for extended seasonal interest, include Rosa mutablis, Hydrangea petiolaris in shrub form and Aruncus 'Horatio' — essential in every Horatio's Garden.
