The Exchange, Walnut Tree Road, Erith

One autumn Saturday morning in 2024 my companion and I visited the Sarah Price-designed garden at The Exchange in Erith, South-East London and we were in for a treat.

As Erith Library for over 100 years, and Grade II-listed, this Carnegie-financed building of 1906 finally closed its doors in 2009, thus becoming an unused space with unkept grounds. Two visionary locals, respectively with conservation and community arts experience, approached Bexley Council in 2016. Their initiative resulted in a community arts hub which opened in 2022 – a refurbished building with a new garden to match. 

The garden surrounds the building on all sides, with various plantings complementing each of the four different areas. The forefront of the building has become a Mediterranean garden with a tapestry of lime-greens, blue-greens and greys. In amongst the herbaceous and shrubs I noticed Myrtle, Euphorbias, Irises, California poppies and particular favourites, sub-shrub Dorycnium hirsutum and several Hesperaloe parviflora (red yucca), a very choice succulent that I have at home (and managed to keep alive!). On our visit we noticed that flowering was just finishing, with its tall stem of red-orange pendulum flowers just going over.

We walked through the banked, side garden, featuring an overhanging Mulberry, with a mature Phormium, Yucca and Melianthus in the foreground. Opposite, on the corner of the building, crimson Rosa x odorata ‘Bengal Beauty’ greeted us. The entrance to the shop and building is just past this point and we noted the section of locally-made brickwork outside the door set to a herringbone pattern, blending well into the surrounding aggregate pathway. 

The rear garden is spacious, so Sarah Price has included generous pathways made of crushed aggregates dividing various borders, gently sloping to merge into a calm, secluded seating area, adjacent to a specially-made conservatory in the shape of a bus.  This unique structure is in memory of Florence Barton-Young, the Head Librarian who commissioned in the 1930s the first-ever library vehicle for the communities in outlying areas of Erith.

Sarah Price has used recycled materials and many recycled plants from pop-up gardens and these include greys (Eleagnus) and greens (Acanthus) with large groups of Digitalis lutea and grasses including Nassella (formerly Stipa) tenuissima, with pops of autumn colour from pale pink Asters and several pink-apricot Rosa x odorata ‘Mutabilis’. These roses provide much needed sparkle in the winter months and, like Rosa ‘Bengal Beauty’, will continue to flower throughout the year. 

We descend the Corten-steel steps into the east-facing side garden, the entrance to the coffee shop and the outdoor seating amongst the pines and ferns.  On our visit, the purple-flowered Asters and purple Morning Glory flowers (Ipomoea) were sparkling amongst the shrubbery. 

Sarah Price is a twice Gold-Medal winner at Chelsea and is well-known for her ‘jewel-like’ designs.   This exuberant garden is a testament to her artistic eye and the Head gardener and team of volunteers are demonstrating that the garden can endure well into the future. This is a garden that will delight you on every visit and is not to be missed. And how lucky are we to have a Sarah Price-designed garden in South-East London?  Very lucky, I say.

Anna L