The Reflection Garden at 25 Cannon Street

Tom Stuart-Smith oversaw the transformation of an existing 1500m3 garden space at 25 Cannon Street, located adjacent to St. Paul’s Cathedral, in the City of London. The Reflection Garden, as it is now called, is privately owned by a property company. The Architect for the building was Buckley Gray Yeoman. We wanted to create an attractive green space for people to look and feel connected with the historic surroundings, improving bio-diversity in this urban environment, whilst providing seclusion for people from the frenetic urban energy. The project also needed to address the challenge of opening up large skylights to a pre-existing, underused basement beneath the garden so as to realise its development potential. The team balanced a strong conceptual and artistic approach with a rigorous technical understanding that achieved the overarching vision, whilst creating a transformed public space that increased urban permeability and improved the building’s contribution to the public realm and its historic context. Tom Stuart-Smith developed the idea of a reflecting water basin as a skylight that would become a focal point, forging a connection between the garden and its historic surroundings. Working in collaboration with water feature specialist Andrew Ewing, we designed a large reflection pool that serves as both a continuous bench and holds a mirror to the sky capturing remarkable reflections of St Paul’s Cathedral – turning the previously challenging skylight into a contemplative centrepiece to a calm green space. The water feature conceals two large skylights that bring daylight deep into basement. Through careful management of optics, we ensured that at no point do visitors to the garden see into the basement. The planting in the garden offers a rich and multi-layered experience that balances simplicity and complexity, providing year-round interest and ground coverage thus playing on the garden’s name by creating a secluded, peaceful and shaded space where the public can pause (and reflect) throughout the day. The chosen seasonal planting is richly varied and textural and is placed alongside bird and bat boxes and insect hotels to improve biodiversity. We worked closely with the city planners to ensure that this garden upholds the City Corporation’s plans to ensure the Square Mile is a vibrant destination for leisure as well as work and as a result of its introduction, the Urban Greening Factor has been raised from 0.29 to 0.49. The garden was opened to the public in 2022 and has received a hugely positive response for improving the building’s contribution to the public realm and its historic context. Additionally, a new roof terrace atop the building provides a flexible amenity space for the building’s users, whilst significantly increasing the biodiversity in the local area. This is achieved through a selection of plant species that are attractive to a range of pollinators, as well as herbs and fruiting trees.