Chelsea Fringe – London Garden No 8

Five Minutes Peace: a garden to sit in, a poem to read, and a prompt to write to … No 8. (Find out more about what this is all about here.)

QUEEN ELIZABETH HALL ROOF TOP GARDEN, SOUTH BANK

Several years ago, on a trip to Hong Kong, I was desperate to sit in a garden but no one seemed to know of one to direct me to. Eventually someone suggested  a concrete sports stadium where I sat, a little uncomfortably, and wrote in my journal for a bit. Well, to be honest I think, for all its glories, the South Bank can feel a little like that, so it’s all the more surprising that hidden away above the Queen Elizabeth Hall is such a pretty rooftop garden.

With a wildflower meadow even…

Vegetables…

Hey – what’s this – a bar!…

And all, of course, with one of the best views of London.

Now because the South Bank is also the home of the BFI, the Writer in the Garden has gone all film director-y today, and here’s the writer Will Sutton captured on film for you, reading T S Eliot’s beautiful Le Figlia Che Piange. We are waiting for next year’s BAFTA’s…

So here’s a writing exercise for you today…

The Queen Elizabeth Hall garden is full of oddities, and not just us…  Write about finding something unusual in your garden one morning, whether it be an object, a plant, or indeed a gardener!