Landscape Architecture, Blenheim and elsewhere

Hal Moggridge, OBE, gives us an illustrated talk about his work in landscape architecture including his role with Ralph Cobham in restoration planting for the Capability Brown masterpiece at Blenheim, his later work for the historic Royal Parks in London, the creation, helped by Tony Jellard, of the National Botanic Garden of Wales in 1995–2000 and, in 1979, the garden for Stevens Close for Jesus College in Oxford.

Hal Moggridge, OBE is a Consultant at Colvin & Moggridge, the landscape architecture practice established when Brenda Colvin invited him to join her as her partner in 1969. She was in her 70s and he only 33. The success of the public enquiries that often preceded consent for the large industrial landscape projects for which the practice was renowned can, in part, be attributed to Hal’s encyclopaedic knowledge of each and every site. In the 1980s Hal played a key role in restoring the Capability Brown masterpiece at Blenheim, thus reviving the national interest in Brown and the Georgian natural landscape garden. Hal has never lost his feeling for the importance of views that his rediscovery of Brown inspired, and more recently, his pioneering work defining the spatial character of important urban views in Edinburgh and London has won him international acclaim. Like Brenda before him, Hal was honoured for his unique thinking and work in landscape architecture.