Green mezzanine

Flanked by tall buildings, this small shady city courtyard garden did not get any sun at all. We had a great idea of raising the ground level to increase the amount of light into this shady city courtyard.

Shady courtyard in Islington transformed with ferns and clever landscaping

Small courtyard garden in N1 given makeover with iroko wood and plants

Bespoke iroko staircase and plants transform shady courtyard in N1

Evening in the Islington small courtyard garden with lights and plants

Evening view into the shady courtyard garden in N1 transformed with lights and plants

Our brief for this North London garden design project in Angel, N1 required a low maintenance contemporary outdoor living area to relax and entertain guests in. This was quite a challenge as the garden was surrounded by tall commercial properties and received no sunlight whatsoever. It was also a grade two listed building situated in an Islington conservation area.

Landscaping

We chose warm Iroko hardwood for the balcony, decking and bespoke staircase set off by contemporary Jura limestone - a high quality hardwearing surface with subtle fossil traces. The walls and raised planters were rendered and painted off white to enhance and lighten the modern scheme.

Planting design

This tiny North London city courtyard garden is shady throughout the year. Our planting design brief was to create a leafy contemporary tropical garden. This was achieved using a mixture of ferns, bamboos and agapanthus. A beautiful Dicksonia grabs attention and draws the eye to the lower level of the garden.

The upper decked area provides a simple contemporary backdrop for a bright red Japanese maple.

This stunning urban garden makeover was completed using charcoal black containers.