For Anthony McGrath – owner and co-creator of the much-fêted garden at Town Place in West Sussex – a garden is like performance art. “You might think of it as installation,” he says with a wry smile, “but it’s really not; it’s very performative.” What seems like a throwaway line, is actually key to understanding Town Place and the playful theatricality that underpins it.
This three-acre garden of interconnecting avenues and rooms is now a living, breathing artwork. But 33 years ago, when Anthony and his wife Maggie were seeking a new project, this 17th-century farmhouse with just over two acres of land was a blank canvas. Aside from a few specimen trees and a pre-war rose garden, it was mainly lawn. Perfect: a clean slate.
Previously, Anthony and Maggie had
