Credit: Jason Ingram
The Tate Britain Garden Awarded Gold at the 2026 RHS Chelsea Flower Show Tuesday 19 May
Tate is pleased to announce that The Tate Britain Garden designed by Tom Stuart-Smith and generously funded by the Clore Duffield Foundation and Project Giving Back, has been awarded a gold medal at this year’s RHS Chelsea Flower Show.
Presenting a bold new vision for how art, nature and community interact, the show garden offers a taster of the forthcoming Clore Garden, also designed by Stuart-Smith, due to open at Tate Britain on London’s Millbank in 2027.
The garden takes cues from East Asian woodlands, and features resilient drought-tolerant plants suitable for London’s rising temperatures which look to the future of Tate Britain’s site. At its heart is a 1949 sculpture from the nation’s art collection, Bicentric Form by Dame Barbara Hepworth; a circular bench cast from reused materials; and a golden water channel inspired by mycorrhizal fungi.
After the Show, the garden will be incorporated into the wider Clore Garden project on Millbank, which is currently undergoing construction.
Alex Farquharson, Director of Tate Britain, said: “It’s brilliant news that the Tate Britain Garden has been awarded a prestigious gold medal at Chelsea, and Tate’s thanks and admiration go to Tom Stuart-Smith and his team for their tireless work in designing and creating this haven of art and horticulture. We know visitors cannot wait to see this beautiful garden realised on an even larger scale when the Clore Garden at Tate Britain opens next year, where they will be able to enjoy a restful space built on principles of sustainability and biodiversity which will transform the gallery façade.”
Tom Stuart-Smith, Designer of the Tate Britain Garden and the forthcoming Clore Garden, said: “This gold medal belongs to everyone involved in the making of the Tate Britain Garden, the result of an extraordinary collective effort. We wanted to make a show garden that gives people a taster of the exciting Clore Garden we are creating at Tate Britain, a welcoming public space of the highest quality that is open to all. I’m especially grateful to the Clore Duffield Foundation and Project Giving Back who funded this garden at Chelsea, and to Crocus who built it.”
The Tate Britain Garden will continue to inspire the public on the Show’s Main Avenue (stand number 324) and across the BBC coverage in the week ahead.
For press requests, email ella.baker@tate.org.uk or call +44(0)20 7887 8730. To download press images, visit Tate’s Dropbox.
The Tate Britain Garden at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2026 has been generously funded by the Clore Duffield Foundation and Project Giving Back.
The RHS Chelsea Flower Show planting list includes:
Trees: Ficus carica, Lagerstroemia indica 'Natchez', Magnolia grandiflora, Melia azedarach.
Shrubs and herbacious: Aspidistra elatior, Cycas revoluta, Euphorbia ceratocarpa, Farfugium japonicum, Libertia grandiflora, Melianthus major, Schefflera schweliensis, Roldana petasitis.
The full planting list can be viewed here.
About the Clore Garden at Tate Britain
Realised in partnership with the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) and made possible by generous funding from the Clore Duffield Foundation and with support from the Julia Rausing Trust, the Clore Garden at Tate Britain, designed by Tom Stuart-Smith, will offer a beautiful and inviting new green space for London. A rich, varied environment carefully designed to complement and enhance the gallery’s neo-classical architecture, showcase sculpture from Tate’s Collection and withstand the UK’s changing climate, the Clore Garden will place nature, art and community at its centre. Expanding the possibilities of museum spaces as creative sites for learning and engagement, the Clore Garden will support wellbeing and offer space for new social connections. The plans include the building of a new single storey light-weight garden classroom designed by architecture studio Feilden Fowles, where regular workshops for school groups and adult learners will explore the connections between art and nature, fostering creativity and collaboration.
About Tate Britain
Tate Britain is home to the world’s greatest collection of British art. The gallery’s free displays feature over 800 works by over 350 artists, telling an expansive and diverse story which spans from the 1500s to the present day. Tate Britain welcomes over a million visitors each year to its ever-changing programme of exhibitions, commissions and events. It celebrates key figures in art history and provides a vital platform for the best artists working in Britain today, including through the Turner Prize, Art Now, and the Tate Britain Commission. For more information, visit tate.org.uk/visit/tate-britain
About Tom Stuart-Smith Studio
Tom Stuart-Smith Studio is a landscape design practice established in 1998. Its work has ranged from large gardens and parks open to the public, to private gardens in the UK and overseas. It has also designed twelve gardens for the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, ten of which have been awarded gold medals, and three won ‘Best in Show’ (two were not judged). For more information, visit tomstuartsmith.co.uk
About the Clore Duffield Foundation
The Clore Duffield Foundation, established by Sir Charles Clore in 1964, celebrated its 60th anniversary in 2024. Now chaired by Sir Charles Clore’s daughter, Dame Vivien Duffield, the Foundation supports UK charities working in the arts, education, social welfare and health. For more information, visit cloreduffield.org.uk
About Project Giving Back
Project Giving Back (PGB) is a unique grant-making charity that provides funding for gardens for good causes at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show. PGB was launched in May 2021 in response to the Covid-19 pandemic and its devastating effects on UK charitable fundraising - effects that have since been exacerbated by the cost-of-living crisis.
PGB has funded 12 gardens at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show in 2026 (including its own Project Giving Back Garden) and intends to fund a total of 63 gardens inspired by a range of good causes from 2022 to 2026.
PGB aims to boost UK-based good causes by giving them an opportunity to raise awareness of their work at the high-profile RHS Chelsea Flower Show, as well as supporting the relocation of the gardens to permanent homes after the show where they can continue to benefit the charities and their communities. For more information, visit givingback.org.uk
About Crocus
Crocus has a long history of working with Tom Stuart-Smith at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show and The Tate Britain Garden is their 11th collaboration together. For over 20 years, Crocus has grown and built 38 show gardens, winning 36 Gold Medals and receiving 13 ‘Best in Show’ awards. Founded in 2000, Crocus is the country’s most trusted online gardening brand with over 50,000 customers rating it as ‘Excellent’ on Trustpilot and the only online nursery with Plant Healthy accreditation. For more information, visit crocus.co.uk