Hampton Court and its stories already have a magical quality – in part derived from the Tudor passion for decoration and symbolism through re-presentations of mythical beasts all over the palace. This is further enhanced by the Stuart fascination with bosquets, wildernesses and mazes as play areas for the court. The palace also has an ancient and famous tradition for garden design and innovation. 

We are seeking a design team to draw upon all of these elements and create an inspirational new garden for children and families that will enhance the overall visitor experience at the palace.

The Magic Garden project will engage, inspire, excite and surprise our young visitors and their families. It will provide a fun and exciting experience that the whole family can explore together and will therefore contain elements that appeal to adults as well as children. It will also provide a venue for special evening events, such as plays, concerts or light installations, and may be available for private hire.

The Magic Garden will be rooted in the principles of learning through play – a concept that has become increasingly influential in the development of sites and activities for children in recent years. Families nowadays tend to have different expectations of visits to historic sites and days out generally: moving from passive spectators to active participants in the way they visit. Playfulness and along with it, children’s capacity to imagine worlds, are key to our vision for the Magic Garden. 

The Magic Garden will introduce themes and/or characters that visitors will encounter in the rest of the palace and gardens, rather than being a standalone attraction. It must therefore be both significant and authentic (and certainly not a generic play space), unique to Hampton Court and underpinning our values.

We envisage the Magic Garden as a primarily seasonal attraction that will be open to the public from March-October each year. It should be naturalistic so that it changes with the seasons and can develop and become more beautiful: a garden, rather than a playground.  As such it will provide a lasting legacy for the palace. It should also be designed to the highest standards but be low-tech and simple in terms of its use of technology. ‘Out of order’ should be an impossible idea for any component.

The budget for the Magic Garden project is £1.5 million. This includes all fees and expenses, enabling work and evaluation.