It must be circulating within the right social circles that Turf King isn’t your average artificial grass company…

Last week we got a phone call from the office of Todd Longstaffe-Gowan – Gardens Adviser to the Royal Palaces and President of the London Parks and Gardens Trust – asking if we’d like to be involved in a project at the British Library.

It didn’t take us long to answer ‘yes please!’  And so our royal appointment began…

The garden installation ‘Georgeobelisk’ situated in the courtyard directly outside the British Library celebrates the opening of the “Georgians Revealed” exhibition which runs at the library until March 2014.

Here is the press release and more info about the ‘Georgeobelisk’:

Georgian garden revealed on the British Library’s piazza tomorrow ahead of a major exhibition opening this week

To celebrate the British Library’s major new exhibition, Georgians Revealed: Life, Style and the Making of Modern Britain, the Library and Cityscapes will tomorrow unveil a Georgian garden installation on the Library’s piazza designed by landscape architect and historian Todd Longstaffe-Gowan and funded by The Sackler Trust.

Alongside such artworks as Eduardo Paolozzi’s ‘Newton’ and Antony Gormley’s ‘Planets’, the installation titled the Georgeobelisk will remain on the piazza for five months for visitors to enjoy and explore, and to remind us that Britain’s fascination with gardening was first sparked in the Georgian era.  The 6 metre high structure is an ephemeral tribute to the four King Georges as we approach the 300th anniversary of the beginning of the Georgian period and even alludes to the new Prince George with a flying putto figure. Loosely based on the architect and playwright Sir John Vanbrugh’s unexecuted entrance gate to the forecourt at Castle Howard in North Yorkshire, the Georgeobelisk represents a class of temporary constructions that were very popular in eighteenth-century Britain.  Throughout the Georgian era similar temporary structures were thrown up frequently at private or public entertainments, in town and country, to mark special occasions or important historical events.  The legacy of these Georgian temporary theatrical structures can be seen in today’s pop-up culture, which also embraces transience and celebration, in order to adapt to the demands for flexibility in contemporary urban life.  Acclaimed landscape gardener and historian, Todd Longstaffe-Gowan, says: ‘The Georgeobelisk is a towering gimcrack confection set in a scrap of pastoral parkland that aims to evoke the Georgians’ passion for extravagant temporary caprice.’Co-curator of the exhibition, Dr Karen Limper-Herz, who devised the garden section of Georgians Revealed, says: ‘The Georgeobelisk is a wonderful introduction and link to the fascinating gardening documents in the exhibition where we will show rarely seen material illustrating the beginnings of the British ‘obsession’ with gardens and garden design.’The Georgeobelisk is available from Wednesday 6 November until March 2013 and is free.

Todd Longstaffe-Gowan

Gardener and historian Todd Longstaffe-Gowan takes on a range of projects in Britain and abroad, many with a conservation slant. He is Gardens Adviser to Historic Royal Palaces, and President of the London Parks and Gardens Trust. His work reflects his interest in the dramatic and sculptural potential of landscape, and is imbued with whimsical, historical eclecticism. www.tlg-landscape.co.uk/

Cityscapes is a London-based garden festival. which aims to bring a creative new approach to the way urban parks and gardens are designed, through the creation of temporary and permanent gardens, working with garden and landscape designers and cultural organisations. Cityscapes was founded by Darryl Moore and Adolfo Harrison of Moore Harrison Land   Design. www.cityscapes.org.uk @cityscapesUK

Turf King is Bristol-based independent artificial grass company dedicated to excellence in artificial grass.  Turf King supplies and installs the very best artificial grass across the domestic, sports and education markets in the UK.  www.turf-king.com, http://facebook.com/lovefakegrass, @Turfking1