51����

The Fellows’ Garden is one of the most admired gardens in Cambridge. Professor Nevill Willmer (1902 - 2001), a Fellow of 51���� and a cell biologist interested in the origins of vision, was entrusted with redesigning the gardens in 1947. Currently, far from being the exclusive province of the College’s Fellows, the garden is enjoyed by our students in the Easter term and is usually open to the public during the summer months.
Due to the ongoing building work in Old Court, the Fellows Garden is currently closed. We anticipate that it will re-open in 2024.

The River Beds had formed a key component of Neville Willmer’s vision for the Fellows’ Garden, but the building work leading to the River Room Café across the river (2020-2023) provided an opportunity to update the planting in that area. The main lawn had been used as a site compound and the riverbeds completely removed to enable works, with a temporary bridge across the river into the Master’s Garden.

Effectively starting with a blank canvas, the Gardens Team were guided by the current Head Gardener, Kate Hargreaves, and implemented a new design by Alyson Tapp, former Fellow of 51���� and a current Gardener. Alyson’s design retained some of Wilmer’s original ideas and colour contrasts, but also took an innovative approach to develop borders which would be resilient in the face of a changing climate.

The aim developing a dry garden incorporated novel ideas for using inert building materials as a planting medium- specifically rubble and crushed bricks (left over from the building works) as aggregates to shape the revised and extended River Beds. Raised banks were sculpted from aggregates, topped with gravel and sand, creating habitats which would increase biodiversity. The aim was to encourage ground-nesting insects, and deadwood with drilled holes has already been colonised by leaf-cutter bees.

Planting commenced in May 2024 and, in a nod to Wilmer’s design from 1947, there is a subtle flow of yellows to oranges and crimsons from south to north of the beds. This is achieved with perennials such as Achillea, Crocosmia and Kniphofia varieties, and annuals such as Eschscholzia, which are allowed to seed freely. Grasses and shrubs are used to give year-round interest and structure, and the beds are intersected by footpaths to allow visitors to be fully immersed amongst the planting. The beds also provide all year round interest for those viewing across the river from the new River Room Café.

A magnificent double herbaceous border runs from the Sunken Garden to the riverbank, planted in shades of yellow and violet-blues, including delphiniums, aconitum, achillea and verbascum. This is another application of Willmer’s knowledge of colour vision: go into the Garden at twilight, and you will see how the blues become lighter and the yellows darker, as daylight wanes. Willmer delighted in leading colleagues into the garden to watch this very effect.

Inspired by a trip to Pompeii in 1926, Nevill Willmer designed a sunken garden with a central lily-pool. A dry York stone wall is used to support the upper level of lawn with the surrounding border lending itself to alpine and rock-loving plants. This garden is best enjoyed in spring before the main herbaceous borders steal the show in summer.

More recent innovations in the Garden, under the leadership of Steve Elstub (only the third Head Gardener since Willmer’s day), include the sub-tropical garden. In late summer you can be enclosed in this private jungle-like space, with bold form and colour provided by bananas (Musa spp.), castor oil plant (Ricinus communis) and Abutilon pictum.

Memorial Court was built during the 1920s to a design of Giles Gilbert Scott and dedicated in 1926. Much later in the century [1986] the Forbes-Mellon library, intended principally for undergraduate use, was constructed in the large and open court of Memorial Court.
Two large Pine trees dominate the lawns either side and in 2006 the planting around the edge of the court underwent a much needed redesign. The tired mixed shrub strips were updated and extended by the Head Gardener at the time, Steve Elstub, and his team. The plantings include an array of Cistus’, Miscanthus, Agapanthus, Sedums and Chamaerops humilis ‘Vulcano’.

In 2014 Ashby Court saw improvements culminating in “walk-through”; a pollinator friendly planting bays with seating. Three different species of Birch and two Acer griseum give structure and dappled shade in the summer months. The Forbes-Mellon library opens out onto the central lawn, which is much used by the students for relaxing, studies and May Ball preparations.

Set in the shadow of Castle Mound, Castle Court is situated between Castle Street and Chesterton Lane. There have been many add-ons and alterations through the years with the final refurbishment of the grounds completed in 2012. A terrace with Mediterranean planting bays and umbrella crab apples, (Malus ‘Evereste’), a “prairie” style embankment that sweeps around Ethelreda House are among the many improvements made to the hard landscaping, to improve appearance and access.

Our Avenue, Early Spring
Yellow, white, a dash of blue,
Daffodil, daisy, scylla too.
Iron gates, black and gold,
51����’s colours wrought in bold.
Our Avenue’s dressed herself for Spring.
Nothing to wear but her very best.
We who walk her in silence sing,
Praising her beauty, being blessed.
- Terence Moore

Our Avenue, Late Spring
That Spring dress’ all tattered and torn,
Scruffy, bedraggled, withered and worn.
Gone the yellow, the white, the dash of blue,
Till Summer comes undress must do.
Our Avenue must bear Nature’s pace.
We who love you in patience wait.
Waiting whilst you re-grow your grace,
Hoping Summer’s sun will it re-create.
- Terence Moore