Horatio's Garden: Work starts on garden at Princess Royal Spinal Injuries Centre Unit in Sheffield

Horatio’s Garden founders Dr Olivia Chapple and David Chapple earlier this month celebrated the start of the build of its Sheffield and East garden, which will feature bespoke elements inspired by the history, geography and industry of its Yorkshire home.

The charity works to bring recuperative outdoor spots to spinal centres around the UK and is named in memory of the founders’ son Horatio, who died at the age of 17 after being attacked by a polar bear while on an expedition on the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard in 2011.

He was a volunteer at the Duke of Cornwall Spinal Treatment Centre in Salisbury and it was originally the teenager’s idea to provide a garden for patients – the first one opened in his honour in 2012.

The new wheelchair-accessible garden at Northern General Hospital in Sheffield, supported by Project Giving Back, has been designed by Charlotte Harris and Hugo Bugg of Harris Bugg Studio – who also created the preview version at Chelsea – while it will be built by Sheffield-based contractors RLX Construction and project managed by Gleeds.

In 2023, the Main Avenue garden was awarded both a gold medal and the Best in Show at RHS Chelsea Flower Show, and the charity was back there with a trade stand at last week’s event.

Dominic West, Sheffield-born actor and appeal patron for Horatio’s Garden Sheffield and East, said: “I was lucky enough to see the Best in Show winning garden at RHS Chelsea Flower Show last year and to talk to the designers Charlotte Harris and Hugo Bugg and to Dr Olivia Chapple about all the wonderful elements in the garden.

"It is particularly interesting to me because I’m from Sheffield and the garden is being created in Sheffield.

"The bronze casting of the cutlery moulds for the water feature are so striking to me as my grandfather was a Master Cutler in Sheffield.

“Horatio’s Garden is an amazing charity, formed in memory of a wonderful young man who came up with the brilliant and simple idea to create a garden in which people with spinal injuries could find spiritual nourishment and recuperation in beautiful surroundings.”

George Robinson, the actor best known for his role in Netflix hit show Sex Education, also previously supported the garden’s appeal before Chelsea in 2023 because he had recovered in the Sheffield unit following a life-changing rugby accident in South Africa.

The garden being created now will be an accessible and therapeutic place for people such injuries and long stays in hospital.

More than 360 in-patients, their family and friends, thousands of outpatients, as well as over 250 NHS staff looking after them will benefit from it every year once it opens in 2025, says the charity.

The garden has been funded by the National Garden Scheme, Project Giving Back, charitable trusts and foundations and other supporters.

The charity is now fundraising to ensure that Horatio’s Garden Sheffield and East – which will benefit people from the West Midlands to East Anglia, and South Yorkshire to Lincolnshire – can thrive for years to come. Eventually, the charity is aiming to provide gardens at all 11 spinal injury centres in the UK.

To date it has opened seven gardens for people in the South West, Scotland, Stoke Mandeville, the Midlands, London and South East, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Sheffield will be the eighth of these, and is hoped to be about much bigger than the one previewed last year at Chelsea, with features making reference to the city’s history such as the cutlery industry and the Rivelin Valley.

Dr Olivia Chapple, who is also chair of Trustees at Horatio’s Garden, said: “We know how much of a difference our gardens make to people reflecting and adjusting after a life-changing spinal injury. Horatio’s Garden Sheffield and East will be a special place with a profoundly positive impact for people, their families and NHS staff and we are so thrilled to bring our Best in Show winning garden at RHS Chelsea to the heart of Sheffield to benefit so many people every year.”