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Before & After: James Alexander Sinclair’s Small Paddington Garden

January 28, 2024

Apparently, this garden used to be a bin store. (It has been a few years since I lived in London and had all the different words straight) – but I think a bin store is either a place where you buy wine or it is a place where you buy trash cans. Either way – the new garden is nothing like it once was.

A courtyard with a fountain and plants.
A fountain and a rill provide a beautiful and relaxing focal point for this tiny London town garden.

From dumpsters, bottles, and car parks to an urban oasis, this garden makeover was designed by James Alexander Sinclair. It is such an extraordinary transformation of a London Town garden that I had to double-check the before pictures to make sure James wasn’t fooling with us and it really was the same place.

A group of men working on a construction site.
The garden construction team during the build (the before shot). This garden is small! But the design makes it seem much bigger.

A courtyard with plants and a fence.
This London Courtyard garden is enjoyed on two levels and provides a pretty green area that is viewed from many balconies. Rosa laevigata Coopers Burmese is climbing on the back wall and a dogwood tree (cornus) anchors the garden.

A courtyard with a spiral staircase.
A zig-zag rill through this small garden makes it feel substantially bigger by making the eye follow a line along a 45 degree through this small space. Turning a garden layout on a 45-degree angle is a classic trick to make a space feel much bigger by making you think there are longer views.

James cleverly uses a great designer trick to make small spaces feel larger.  That is to make the lines of the garden as long as possible by going at an angle rather than square to the walls or boundaries.  Diagonal lines are more dynamic and lead your eye to the longest views, making the whole space seem larger.  Click through to see more of the design details, including the vertical slat cedar fence and the water feature lighting.

Built by Modular.  Photographs by Andrea Jones

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