In the modernist landscape of Hemel Hempstead’s Water Gardens, we created a new playspace themed around the famously serpent-shaped River Gade. The meandering waterway was Geoffrey Jellicoe’s ‘concealed ghost’ beneath the formal-visible, his serpent the ‘animal within’.

Sketch plan and elevations of Water Gardens by Jellicoe with location of new playground.

Our proposal lets the serpent emerge. As it takes the form of arching steel frames, it shooting in and out of the sloping ground. In plan, the structure echoes the formal Cartesian geometry of Jellicoe’s landscape, aligning with the adjacent promenade of pollarded Lime trees. Where the serpent emerges, timber play ‘nodes’ enliven the form, intertwining and latticing to create platforms, climbing nests and cocoons.

The playspace is a part of a wider landscape refurbishment by HTA Design. The project was funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund and client, Dacorum Council. It won the Landscape Institute's Heritage and Conservation Award 2017.