FOLAR
Friends of the Landscape Archive at Reading

Celebrating Hal Moggridge's Career In Landscape Architecture

A celebration of Hal Moggridge’s Career in Landscape Architecture

FOLAR wanted to understand what impact working with two founding members of the Institute has had on his own approach to landscape architecture, but also in the positions he took on with the LI and IFLA. He has developed a broad and deep knowledge on many aspects of landscape architecture. FOLAR wanted to learn more about some of his key interests and their practical applications that cover both his commissioned and voluntary work. Through a varied programme of speakers and topics we hoped to discover more about his work, ideas, principles, and also about him.

How can such a quiet and modest man achieve so much?

Colvin and Moggridge is now the UK’s oldest landscape practice. The archives of both Hal Moggridge and Brenda Colvin are safely housed at MERL, fully catalogued and open to all: https://merl.reading.ac.uk/collections/brenda-colvin.

One of the most valuable objectives with FOLAR’s celebrations on special lives is being able to discuss, ask questions, see projects and learn and also share so much more about different aspects of peoples’ life and work, rather than guessing or making assumptions.  We hope you will enjoy what you find here.

Hal Moggridge, OBE, is an architect, landscape architect, author, past president of the Landscape Institute (LI), twice winner of the LI gold medal, recipient of the Royal Horticultural Society’s Victoria Medal of Honour. And, in September 2025, he was honoured with the IFLA (International Federation of Landscape Architects) President’s Award, given in recognition of his contribution for the advancement of the profession of landscape architecture through participation with IFLA.  

Continuing FOLAR’s special series celebrating the life and works of UK’s renowned landscape architects, Hal was an obvious choice. He has spent almost all of his working life in landscape architecture. Hal has spent his working life in landscape architecture. Throughout this time, he has shared his knowledge and wisdom guiding multiple landscape focused organisations and professional bodies at international, national, and local levels. Hal has long provided a compass of wisdom, generosity, and diplomacy. He sees landscapes not only as cultural treasures, but also tools for reconciliation and he embraces diversity as a strength. His courage, clarity, and humanistic vision continue to inspire. He continues working now as a consultant to his practice and advising on multiple committees, including FOLAR.  

We wanted to understand what impact working with two founding members of the Institute has had on his own approach to landscape architecture, but also in the positions he took on with the LI and IFLA.

10. Hal's involvement with the London Parks and Gardens Trust

About this video

Helen Monger, former Director of the London Historic Parks and Gardens Trust (a charity dedicated to protecting the metropolis’s varied historic green spaces), currently works for the Open Spaces Society and is a Trustee of CPRE London.  She supports numerous campaigns seeking better access to horticulturally rich landscapes. 

This talk shares her insights into Hal’s unassuming influence on the London Historic Parks and Gardens Trust’s ongoing campaigns.

Using her summary of Hal’s 2017 book Slow Growth: On the Art of Landscape Architecture as a guide, these are the tenets she identified as Hal’s ‘philosophy’. 

·       Respect for Historical Layers - Hal emphasises the importance of working with London's rich historical landscapes, advocating for designs that reveal and respect the deep time embedded in parks, gardens, and public spaces.

·       Natural Growth Over Instant Impact - In London's urban fabric, Hal champions planting and design that mature slowly and naturally, enhancing the city's green spaces over decades rather than seeking immediate visual impact.

·       Subtlety in Urban Design - Hal promotes quiet, unobtrusive interventions blending new features into London's existing landscapes rather than imposing stark, modernist contrasts.

·       Landscape as a Living Process - Hal views London's parks and gardens as evolving ecosystems, where landscape architecture should facilitate long-term ecological health rather than static "finished" spaces.

·       The Landscape Architect's Invisible Hand - In London projects, Hal argues the best work often goes unnoticed — successful landscapes feel inevitable and timeless, without announcing the designer's presence.

Examples include contributions to a sightlines framework, making the case for much wider bands of protection given to views of the City of London.

Proposals for Regent’s Park and Kenwood House subtly refreshed the parks without undermining the original vision, ensuring that any interventions felt inevitable rather than imposed; restoring historic planting schemes in a way that allowed trees and shrubs to mature naturally over time, rather than opting for instant, fully-grown replacements. 

On a walk through Victoria Tower Gardens, Helen learned from Hal’s keen eye that what had seemed to be a rather average sort of public park had in fact been very cleverly designed and maintained to lead the eye and provide the ideal rural setting for the 'Mother of all Parliaments'.

For those unaware of the ‘Save Victoria Tower Gardens’ campaign, the Government sought to build a learning centre and memorial to the Holocaust in this small listed park adjacent to the world heritage site of the Palace of Westminster. Their favoured design with underground exhibition space will subsume the gardens to mere ancillary planting. The objection is solely about the choice of location for major building works and the threat of losing public open space and a listed park and garden, which provide a meeting ground for processions or a queuing place to pay last respects to the late Queen. So the joint objectives are to save:

  • A well used public open space, Grade 2 park

  • The setting of a World Heritage Site

  • Buxton Memorial Grade 2*

  • Tree root protection zones

Some of the slides were prepared and presented by Hal himself to a Parliamentary Committee.

Hal’s way of resolving problems/difficult situations is always finding better solutions. Hal has served on the Cultural Landscapes & Historic Gardens Committee of ICOMOS and his quiet networking has proved vital in securing UNESCO admonition of the UK Government over these proposals and resulted in Victoria Tower Gardens being nominated as the Europa Nostra most endangered site in Europe last year.

About this series

Hal Moggridge was an obvious choice to continue FOLAR’s special series celebrating the life and works of UK’s renowned landscape architects. He has spent almost all of his working life in landscape architecture. Throughout this time, he has shared his knowledge and wisdom guiding multiple landscape focused organisations and professional bodies at international, national, and local levels. Hal has long provided a compass of wisdom, generosity, and diplomacy. He sees landscapes not only as cultural treasures, but also tools for reconciliation and embraces diversity as a strength. His courage, clarity, and humanistic vision continue to inspire. He continues working now as a consultant to his practice and as a volunteer advising on multiple committees, including FOLAR. Through a varied programme of speakers and topics we hoped to discover more about his work, ideas, principles, and also about him. How can such a quiet and modest man achieve so much? One of the most valuable objectives with FOLAR’s celebrations on special lives is being able to discuss, ask questions, see projects and learn and also share so much more about different aspects of peoples’ life and work, rather than guessing or making assumptions.

The archives of both Hal Moggridge and Brenda Colvin are at MERL, fully catalogued and open to all by appointment: https://merl.reading.ac.uk/collections/brenda-colvin

The Landscape Institute collection at MERL: https://merl.reading.ac.uk/collections/landscape-institute/

More information about FOLAR https://www.folar.uk/

 
Mary McHughComment