Back to a Botanic Future
GILL GOLDENBERG, whose love of gardens stems from her dad’s productive oasis, explores plans to take horticulture forward to the past
Hastings Botanic Garden is a visionary project with links to Marianne North – possibly the most important and famous resident of Hastings you might never have heard of. Following my father’s gardening – growing vegetables to sustain us, and cultivating a passion for azaleas – inspired me to find out more.
I met with Lee Piper, one of five directors helping founder, Alexander Wilberforce, to make this visionary community project a reality for Hastings. “Three years ago I joined this fantastic community project, having previously known nothing about Marianne North.” But is this visionary project realistic? Will it happen?
2030 will mark the 200-year anniversary of Marianne North’s birth, and also the target for the finished Botanical Garden in Hastings. Like everything else this company has done, this is only achievable because of the extensive planning, the economic impact assessment, the involvement of key partners, and an understanding of what the Botanic Gardens could do for Hastings and the people who live here. “Hastings has had more than its share of white elephants, but this is not one of them.”
The project is a Company Limited by Guarantee rather than a charity, run on a not-for-profit basis. Everyone on the board is a volunteer, including Lucy Abbot, Gilda Silva, Laetitia Yapp and Sophie Ansar.
There is a clear path of progression laid out to reach the final goal. Firstly, it is raising funds. The initial target is to raise £2,500 which will be matched by East Sussex County Council, which will raise about half the cost of the initial concept design. The finished centre will be “a major asset for Hastings”, according to a director of Kew Gardens. Hastings relies on seasonal tourism, but this initiative would be a year-round quality attraction, a resource and educational opportunity for the local community.
Alexander Wilberforce said “The genesis of this project came when I and a friend were lamenting the absence of a warm communal space in Hastings to take our children in the winter. It was only subsequently that I discovered from the newspaper archives that there had been a movement to create a Winter Garden here, starting in the 1870s and culminating in the 1904 newspaper supplement with the design opposite Warrior Square, with the south end of White Rock sold to Hastings Borough Council on the condition that it was used for recreation or as a Winter Garden.”
Why is Marianne North so important? She came from a wealthy and ‘respectable’ Hastings family, but she defied all the conventions of the early Victorian era. She was passionate about plants and wildlife and was an accomplished artist. After her father died, she travelled solo to 15 countries, capturing in oil paintings – which in itself was contrary to conventions about representing botanical specimens – all manner of plants and wildlife. She warned of habitat loss and the need for biodiversity, long before it became the critical issue it is today. So important were her botanical studies in establishing specific species around the world, that five plant species have been named after her with the Northia genus. You can visit the gallery in Kew Gardens–devoted solely to exhibiting over 800 of her paintings.
The company funds events like The Garden Festival held at White Rock last summer, by applying for grants and seeking the support of Hastings Borough Council. They are already planning for events in 2025. Community events like a talk by insect specialist Professor Dave Goulson at East Sussex College on 25 October 2024 have been organised to coincide with Marianne North’s birthday on 24 October 1830. Summer events like The Garden Festival are more about engaging with Green Space groups, enabling them to showcase their endeavours to engage communities and inspire people to get involved in green initiatives.
The renowned architects, Mizzo Studio, who specialise in using sustainable building practices, are on board with the project, having met with senior council officials in February 2022 to discuss the project. Fittingly, they have completed two projects in Kew Gardens itself. The financial viability of the project, driven by Alexander Wilberforce’s passion to see the project become a reality, has been established through realistic advice from other botanical gardens in the UK. Given the link through The Marianne North Gallery in Kew Gardens, and Kew having a Sussex connection at Wakehurst Place, it would seem fitting that the link between Hastings and these places could grow stronger as the scheme develops.
In addition to the annual events organised, the vision for the project is kept alive through education. Sophie Ansar’s daughter Star, a writer, researcher and composer, goes into schools to talk about Marianne North. The importance of engaging with young people is recognised and acted on with the same passionate enthusiasm evident throughout the company.
White Rock is the preferred location for a number of reasons. As mentioned above, the creation of a ‘Winter Gardens’ for Hastings was discussed several years before Marianne North’s death. More significantly, the southern edge of White Rock was sold to Hastings Borough Corporation in 1903 on the condition that “It shall be used solely as a site for a Municipal Buildings Winter Gardens and recreation grounds.” Well, the bowling green is there, the Falaise Gym is there, but not The Winter Gardens. Not yet. Watch this space.
For more, visit hastingsbotanicgarden.org, or MarianneNorthCentre on Facebook or hastings.botanic.garden on Instagram.
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