How to design a historic royal garden

This design is an early 20th-century re-imagining of the Tudor Pond Garden at Henry VIII's Hampton Court Palace. However, the original fishponds were not for ornament, but to supply food. 

The proposal is a nod to the original fish ponds, not a design for a Tudor swimming pool. 

As well as a pair of fish-shaped fountains, the design features heraldic beasts on poles decorated with a green and white colour scheme. 

The basis for the new scheme is the garden depicted in The Family of Henry VIII, which hangs in the Haunted Gallery.

The portrait shows a garden at Whitehall Palace, bristling with 'Kyngs beestes' perched upon lofty painted posts. 

Water was always an important part of royal gardens, involving a lot of engineering, man power and money.  

The scale of major design projects like the Longford River and the Long Water, commissioned by Charles I and II at Hampton Court Palace, clearly demonstrated wealth and supremacy over nature. ​  

Parterres were placed under the principal windows of the monarch's apartments, where the king or queen could view them from above. 

These designs use plants to create an intricate effect. It was a style designed to show off man’s ability to manipulate plants into all manner of unnatural shapes and was reserved for the best and most talented gardeners. 

William III commissioned the fabulous Privy Garden and parterre at Hampton Court Palace before he died in 1702. 

While gardens were created for the pleasure of the monarch, to impress dignitaries and reinforce royal power, they were also designed to entertain the court. 

This engraving shows courtiers strolling in the Great Fountain Garden in the mid-18th century. 

Formality and geometry were essential elements of royal garden design. 

This 18th-century print of Kensington Palace shows a geometric parterre during the reign of Queen Anne. 

The print shows the formality of the palace gardens, in contrast to the vast open space when Kensington was still in the countryside outside London. 

At Hampton Court, Anne encouraged a more restrained style of garden, said to be in the 'more plain and noble English Manner'.

Anne had the yews planted in the Great Fountain Garden and toned down the frivolity of the original design. This royal design with one central fountain and the avenues of trees, was simple and elegant.

It was intended to show England’s distinctiveness from the Catholic pomp of the European royal palaces.  

Royal gardens have always been at the forefront of changing gardening trends. When George III moved the royal court to Kew, the naturalistic style was in vogue.   

Queen Charlotte's Cottage is the equivalent of a modern-day summer house. Built in around 1771, it was a rustic retreat for the royal family to enjoy picnics or take tea during the summer months. ​ 

The Granville Garden at Hillsborough Castle and Gardens was developed in the 1940s by Lady Rose Bowes-Lyon, aunt to Queen Elizabeth II. The planting is a semi-formal combination of roses and herbaceous plants, including oriental poppies, peonies and irises.

Queen Elizabeth II and Princess Margaret used to visit the garden as children when staying with with Lord and Lady Granville. The Queen still likes to see the Granville Garden during her visits today.    

Contemporary design is very environmentally-aware and this is reflected in the new wildflower meadow at Kensington Palace.  ​It's an informal planting scheme, designed to encourage bees and other pollinating insects.   

Designing royal gardens today is no longer about flaunting power and wealth, but about conservation and preserving these beautiful spaces for public enjoyment.