The revival of the formal garden in the late nineteenth century and the contribution of architects George Devey (1820-1886) and Sir Reginald Blomfield (1856-1942)

From the middle of the eighteenth century the landscape movement had dominated garden making in England, but to many in the early nineteenth century this meant the destruction and loss of the old formal gardens of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Using contemporary commentary throughout the nineteenth century from a range of literature, books and periodicals, from a variety of people, some known and some not, the thesis traced, analysed and explained why there was a revival of the formal garden in the later years of the nineteenth century.

Two architects contributed to the revival of the formal garden. George Devey in the 1850s was the first to restore a formal garden from a plan of 1702 at Penshurst Place in Kent. Devey is little known, he did not write about his work and left no personal papers, but he did leave a small number of garden drawings and sketches which to date are unknown. Using these drawings and sketches, site visits and other archive material the thesis traced, analysed and explained Devey’s contribution to the revival of the formal garden.

The other architect was Sir Reginald Blomfield who is known, but more for his temperament than his garden making. In the 1940s Blomfield sent all his papers, including his garden plans, for the war effort. Using what little survived with archive material, Blomfield’s own writings, perspective drawings, garden plans that remain at some properties, site visits and other research material, the thesis again traced, analysed and explained Blomfield’s role as he followed Devey in the revival of the formal garden.

These three elements, the commentary from contemporary literature, the work of Devey and of Blomfield, were analysed and argued to lead to an understanding and explanation of why the formal garden was revived in the later part of the nineteenth century and what was the contribution of Devey and Blomfield to this revival.