A central London location is providing a surprising new space for the Royal Courts Young Writers programme. Gaby Styles tells the story.
The Royal Court is dedicated to finding and producing new plays that are original, contemporary and challenging. Amidst the bustle of Sloane Square, it is perhaps the last place you might expect to find a theatre garden, yet soon the Royal Court will be gaining its very own verdant sanctuary. This will match the newly revamped Site, home to the Royal Courts Young Writers Programme (YWP) and a hotbed of new writing talent, which inspires and nurtures young playwrights from around the globe.
Before its redevelopment and triumphant re-opening last year, The Site had been a dilapidated, outdated and inaccessible building. With the generous support of several trusts and foundations, the structure underwent extensive refurbishment to transform it into an inspiring, vibrant and versatile new space. The Site has since seen thousands of young people go through our playwriting, outreach and education programmes and promises to excite and involve many, many more young people in our fiftieth year and beyond.
But despite our gleaming new facility, tucked away behind Sloane Square tube, there was a significant area left untouched The Sites garden. Whilst the garden area itself was relatively large and could easily accommodate a large group of young people, it was in a sorry state an inaccessible, misshapen patch of broken concrete slabs, overrun by weeds and brambles: hardly the inviting thinking-space we wanted to offer our young playwrights.
Following a fundraising drive, we secured a generous pledge from the Rose Foundation, with additional support from the ADAPT Trust, to develop the garden into a flexible and accessible space, ideal for participants on our Young Writers Programme. Echoing the Royal Courts commitment to nurturing new and young talent, we held an open design competition for students at the English Gardening School. The prize for the most exciting and appropriate design would be to see their garden brought to life at the Royal Court a fantastic contribution to their portfolio and professional development, and a great opportunity for a young designer to see an early project realised.
Every student was given a full briefing and tour of the Royal Court, and, supported by their tutors at the English Gardening School, asked to create their own individual design for The Site garden. This was an incredibly valuable and important learning experience for the students at the start of their garden design career and led to the submission of 27 hugely impressive and original designs.
A judging panel including staff from the Royal Court and the English Gardening School, celebrity gardener Diarmuid Gavin and representatives from the Rose Foundation were faced with the difficult task of choosing the winning design. After several hours and much discussion, we agreed to recognise two designers work with a commendation prize; for cost and practicality reasons their designs simply werent feasible, but we greatly admired their bold originality and innovation.
In the end, however, there was a unanimous winner a practical, imaginative and thoughtful design by a young designer called Ben Wilson. His vision for the garden will transform it into a fully accessible, creative and welcoming space that will be a fantastic and inspiring secondary area for the YWP.
As spring fast approaches, we now have the task of making this wonderful design a reality, in time to enjoy the summer in our garden. It will mark the final stage of The Sites refurbishment and support the YWP in its continued efforts to enable the next generation of playwrights to flourish.
Gaby Styles is Trusts and Foundations Manager for the Royal Court Theatre.
e: gabystyles@royalcourttheatre.com